Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, (3 August 1890 – 7 February 1980) is widely regarded as the "father" of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF and became its first Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) in 1922. He served as CAS for thirteen years over three terms, longer than any other officer.

Williams came from a working-class background in South Australia. He was a lieutenant in the Army when he learned to fly at Point Cook, Victoria, in 1914. As a pilot with the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) in World War I, Williams rose to command No. 1 Squadron AFC, and later 40th Wing RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and finished the war a lieutenant colonel. Afterwards he campaigned for an Australian air force run separately to the Army and Navy, which came into being on 31 March 1921.

The fledgling RAAF faced several challenges to its continued existence in the 1920s and early 1930s, and Williams received much of the credit for maintaining its independence, but an adverse report on flying safety standards saw him dismissed from the position of CAS and seconded to the RAF prior to World War II. Despite some support for his reinstatement as Air Force chief, and promotion to air marshal in 1940, he never again led the RAAF. After the war he was forcibly retired along with other World War I veteran officers. He took up the position of Director-General of Civil Aviation in Australia, and was knighted the year before his retirement in 1955.

Early life and career

Williams was born on 3 August 1890 into a working-class family in Moonta Mines, South Australia.Garrison, Australian Dictionary of Biography, pp. 502–505Helson, Ten Years at the Top, p. 75 He was the eldest son of Richard Williams, a copper miner who had emigrated from Cornwall, England, and his wife Emily.Odgers, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 49 Leaving Moonta Public School at junior secondary level, Williams worked as a telegraph messenger and later as a bank clerk. He enlisted in a militia unit, the South Australian Infantry Regiment, in 1909 at the age of nineteen. Commissioned a second lieutenant on 8 March 1911, he joined the Permanent Military Forces the following year.Department of Defence, AIF Personnel File, p. 7

In August 1914, Lieutenant Williams took part in Australia's inaugural military flying course at Central Flying School, run by Lieutenants Henry Petre and Eric Harrison. After soloing in a Bristol Boxkite around the airfield at Point Cook, Victoria, Williams became the first student to graduate as a pilot, on 12 November 1914.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 1 He recalled the school as a "ragtime show" consisting of a paddock, tents, and one large structure: a shed for the Boxkite.Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, pp. 8–10 Following an administrative and instructional posting, Williams underwent advanced flying training at Point Cook in July 1915. The next month he married Constance Esther Griffiths, who was thirteen years his senior. The couple had no children.

World War I

Williams was promoted captain on 5 January 1916. He was appointed a flight commander in No. 1 Squadron Australian Flying Corps (AFC), which was initially numbered 67 Squadron Royal Flying Corps by the British. The unit departed Australia in March 1916 without any aircraft; after arriving in Egypt it received B.E.2 fighters, a type deficient in speed and manoeuvrability, and which lacked forward-firing machine guns.Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 32–33 Williams wrote that in combat with the German Fokkers, "our fighting in the air was of short duration but could mean a quick end",Odgers, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 28 and that when it came to bombing, he and his fellow pilots "depended mainly on luck". He further quoted a truism in the Flying Corps that "if a new pilot got through his first three days without being shot down he was lucky; if he got through three weeks he was doing well and if he got through three months he was set". Williams and the other Australians were initially involved in isolated tasks around the Suez Canal, attached to Royal Flying Corps (RFC) units. No. 1 Squadron began to operate concertedly in December 1916, supporting the Allied advance on Palestine.Air Marshal Richard Williams at Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 10 September 2007. Williams completed his RFC attachment in February 1917.Department of Defence, AIF Personnel File, p. 29

On 5 March 1917, shortly after commencing operations with No. 1 Squadron, Williams narrowly avoided crash-landing when his engine stopped while he was bombing the railway terminus at Tel el Sheria. At first believing that he had been struck by enemy fire, he found that the engine switch outside his cockpit had turned off. Within 500 feet of the ground he was able to switch the engine back on and return to base.Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, pp. 56–57 On 21 April, Williams landed behind enemy lines to rescue downed comrade Lieutenant Adrian Cole, having the day before pressed home an attack on Turkish cavalry while under "intense anti-aircraft fire"; these two actions earned him the Distinguished Service Order, the citation for which reads:

He was promoted major in May and given command of No. 1 Squadron, which was re-equipped with Bristol Fighters later that year.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 16Mordike, RAF Air Power Review, p. 18 "Now for the first time", wrote Williams, "after 17 months in the field we had aircraft with which we could deal with our enemy in the air." His men knew him as a teetotaller and non-smoker, whose idea of swearing was an occasional "Darn me!"Molkentin, Fire in the Sky, p. 62

In June 1918, Williams was made a brevet lieutenant colonel and commander of the RAF's 40th (Army) Wing, which was operating in Palestine. It comprised his former No. 1 Squadron and three British units. As a Dominion officer, Williams found that he was not permitted to "exercise powers of punishment over British personnel", leading to him being temporarily "granted a supplementary commission in the Royal Air Force".Mordike, RAF Air Power Review, p. 29 Augmented by a giant Handley Page bomber, his forces took part in the Battle of Armageddon, the final offensive in Palestine, where they inflicted "wholesale destruction" on Turkish columns.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 13–14Mordike, RAF Air Power Review, pp. 33–35 Of 40th Wing's actions at Wadi Fara on 21 September 1918, Williams wrote: "The Turkish Seventh Army ceased to exist and it must be noted that this was entirely the result of attack from the air." He also sent Captain Ross Smith in the Handley Page, accompanied by two Bristol Fighters, to aid Major T. E. Lawrence's Arab army north of Amman when it was harassed by German aircraft operating from Deraa.Odgers, 100 Years of Australia at War, pp. 84–85 In November, Williams was appointed temporary commander of the Palestine Brigade, which comprised his previous command, the 40th (Army) Wing, and 5th (Corps) Wing. His service in the theatre later saw him awarded the Order of the Nahda by the King of the Hejaz. Twice mentioned in despatches, by the end of the war Williams had established himself, according to Air Force historian Alan Stephens, as "the AFC's rising star".

Inter-war years

Birth of the Royal Australian Air Force

Appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours, Williams served as Staff Officer, Aviation, at Australian Imperial Force (AIF) headquarters in London, before returning to Australia and taking up the position of Director of Air Services at Army Headquarters, Melbourne. The Australian Flying Corps had meanwhile been disbanded and replaced by the Australian Air Corps (AAC) which was, like the AFC, a branch of the Army.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 26–31

Upon establishment of the Australian Air Board on 9 November 1920, Williams and his fellow AAC officers dropped their army ranks in favour of those based on the Royal Air Force. Williams, now a wing commander, personally compiled and tabled the Air Board's submissions to create the Australian Air Force (AAF), a service independent of both the Army and the Royal Australian Navy. Though the heads of the Army and Navy opposed the creation of an independent air arm for fear that they would be unable to find air cover for their operations, support from Prime Minister Billy Hughes, as well as prominent parliamentary figures including Treasurer Joseph Cook and Defence Minister George Pearce allowed the proposal to succeed.Grey, A Military History of Australia, p. 132 The AAF was duly formed on 31 March 1921; Williams deliberately chose this day rather than 1 April, the founding date of the RAF three years earlier, "to prevent nasty people referring to us as 'April Fools'".Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 31 The "Royal" prefix was added five months later.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 15–16 Williams proposed an ensign for the AAF in July 1921, based on the Royal Air Force flag but featuring the five stars of the Southern Cross within the RAF roundel and the Commonwealth Star in the lower hoist quarter. This design was not adopted for the RAAF, the government employing instead a direct copy of the RAF ensign until 1949, when a new design using the stars of the Australian flag was chosen.Air Power Development Centre, The Australian Experience of Air Power, pp. 32–35

As the senior officer of the Air Board, Williams held the title of First Air Member, the nascent Air Force initially not being deemed suitable for a "Chief of Staff" appointment equivalent to the Army and Navy.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 33–34 He moved to consolidate the new service's position by expanding its assets and training. Shortly after the AAF's establishment, land was purchased for an air base at Laverton, eight kilometres (five miles) inland of Point Cook, and in July 1921 Williams made the initial proposal to develop a base at Richmond, New South Wales, the first outside Victoria.Roylance, Air Base Richmond, p. 15 He also started a program to second students from the Army and Navy, including graduates of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, to bolster officer numbers; candidates reaped by this scheme included future Air Force chiefs John McCauley, Frederick Scherger, Valston Hancock and Alister Murdoch, along with other senior identities such as Joe Hewitt and Frank Bladin. As a leader, Williams would gain a reputation for strong will, absorption in administrative minutiae and, in Alan Stephens's words, a "somewhat puritanical" nature. He became known throughout the service as "Dicky".Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 16, 340The spelling "Dickie" is occasionally used, for example in Roylance, Air Base Richmond, p. 31, though Roylance also employs "Dicky" on p. 36

Chief of the Air Staff The position of First Air Member was replaced by Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) in October 1922. Williams would serve as CAS three times over seventeen years in the 1920s and '30s, alternating with Wing Commander (later Air Vice Marshal) Stanley Goble. One motive suggested for the rotation was a ploy by Army and Navy interests to "curb Williams' independence".Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 20–23 Instead the arrangement "almost inevitably fostered an unproductive rivalry" between the two officers. Although in a legal sense the Air Board was responsible for the RAAF rather than the Chief of Staff alone, Williams dominated the board to such an extent that Goble would later complain that his colleague appeared to consider the Air Force his personal command.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 52–53