Frank McNamara (RAAF officer)

Born in Rushworth, Victoria, McNamara was the first of eight children to William Francis McNamara, a State Lands Department officer, and his wife Rosanna.[1][2] He began his schooling in Rushworth, and completed his secondary education at Shepparton Agricultural High School, which he had entered via a scholarship.[2][3] The family moved to Melbourne in 1910.[2]

McNamara joined the school cadets in 1911, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 49th Battalion (Brighton Rifles), a militia unit, in July 1913.[4][5] He became a teacher after graduating from Melbourne Teachers' Training College in 1914, and taught at various schools in Victoria.[6] He also enrolled in the University of Melbourne, but his studies were interrupted by the outbreak of World War I.[6][7]

Captain McNamara flying an Avro 504K over St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, c. 1919–20. He was later married in the cathedral.

Following the disbandment of the AFC, McNamara transferred to the Australian Air Corps (AAC) in April 1920.[21] He was not offered an appointment in the AAC initially, and secured one only after Captain Roy King protested the situation by giving up his own place in the new service in favour of McNamara, whom he described as "this very good and gallant officer".[23] McNamara was invested with his Victoria Cross by the Prince of Wales at Government House, Melbourne, on 26 May.[21] He enlisted in the newly established Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in 1921.[3] Ranked flying officer (honorary flight lieutenant), he was one of the original twenty-one officers on the Air Force's strength at its formation that March.[24] Posted to RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne as Staff Officer Operations and Intelligence, McNamara was given command of No. 1 Flying Training School (No. 1 FTS) at Point Cook in July 1922. He was promoted squadron leader in March 1924 and the following month married Hélène Bluntschli, a Belgian national he had met in Cairo during the war, at St Patrick's Cathedral;[2][6] his best man was fellow officer Frank Lukis.[25]

McNamara travelled to England in 1925 for two years exchange with the Royal Air Force, serving at No. 5 Flying Training School, RAF Sealand, and the Directorate of Training at the Air Ministry, London.[1][26] Returning to Australia in November 1927, he was appointed Second-in-Command No. 1 FTS.[6] In 1928, McNamara resumed his studies at the University of Melbourne, having earlier failed to pass the necessary exams to enter the RAF Staff College, Andover. A part-time student at the university, he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations (second-class honours) in 1933.[6][7] McNamara became Commanding Officer No. 1 FTS in October 1930,[6] and was promoted to wing commander one year later.[8] He was placed in charge of RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, including No. 1 Aircraft Depot, in February 1933.[6] McNamara was raised to group captain in 1936, and attended the Imperial Defence College, London, the following year.[5][8] He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1938 New Year Honours.[27]

Air Vice Marshal McNamara (right) greets Australian airmen upon their arrival in Britain, 1941

When World War II broke out in September 1939, McNamara was serving as Air Liaison Officer at Australia House in London, a position he had held since January 1938.[1][28] Shortly before being promoted air commodore in December, he advocated establishing a reception base to act as a headquarters for the RAAF in England and "generally to watch the interests of Australian personnel" who were stationed there.[1][29] By November 1940 he had reversed his position, in favour of an Air Ministry proposal to process personnel of all nationalities in one RAF base camp.[28][30] In the event, RAAF Overseas Headquarters was formed on 1 December 1941; Air Marshal Richard Williams was appointed Air Officer Commanding (AOC) and McNamara Deputy AOC.[31][32] McNamara became acting air vice marshal and acting AOC of RAAF Overseas Headquarters when Williams returned to Australia in January 1942 for what was expected to be a temporary visit; Williams was subsequently posted to Washington, D.C. and McNamara retained command of the headquarters until the end of the year.[33][34]

McNamara was appointed AOC British Forces Aden in late 1942,[3][28] and arrived to take up the posting on 9 January 1943.[35] Described in the official history of Australia in the war as a "backwater",[36] British Forces Aden's main functions were conducting anti-submarine patrols and escorting convoys. McNamara flew on these missions whenever he could, generally as an observer, but enemy contact was rare.[21][35] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in the 1945 New Year Honours,[37] and returned to London in March. That month McNamara was deeply affected by the loss of his close friend Peter Drummond, who had helped keep attacking cavalry at bay during his Victoria Cross action in 1917. Drummond's Consolidated B-24 Liberator disappeared near the Azores en route to Canada and all aboard were presumed killed; McNamara had to break the news to his widow, Isabel.[38] McNamara's health had also suffered from exposure to the desert dust in Aden, and he was unable to take up his next position as the RAAF's representative at the Ministry of Defence until September.[21] His entire war was spent outside Australia.[3]

McNamara at Buckingham Palace, London, for his investiture as a Companion of the Bath, flanked by his wife and son, in May 1945

McNamara was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946, along with several other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, officially to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers. His role overseas had in any case become redundant.[39][40] He was discharged from the Air Force on 11 July.[8] In May 1946, the British government offered McNamara the position of Senior Education Control Officer in Westphalia, Germany, under the auspices of the Allied Control Commission. He later became Deputy Director of Education for the British Zone of Occupation.[21] McNamara continued to live in England after completing his work with the Commission in October 1947, and served on the National Coal Board in London from 1947 to 1959.[3][5] He died of hypertensive heart failure on 2 November 1961, aged 67, after suffering a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire. Survived by his wife and two children, he was buried at St Joseph's Priory, Austin Wood, Gerrards Cross, following a large funeral.[6][41]

Embittered by his dismissal from the RAAF and the meagre severance he received from the Australian Government, McNamara insisted that his Victoria Cross not be returned to Australia after his death; his family donated it to the RAF Museum, London.[21] A fellow No. 1 Squadron pilot, Lieutenant (later Air Vice Marshal) Adrian Cole, described McNamara as "quiet, scholarly, loyal and beloved by all ... the last Officer for whom that high honour would have been predicted".[6][42] He was one of the few Victoria Cross recipients to subsequently attain senior rank in the armed services, though RAAF historian Alan Stephens considered that his appointments were "in the main routine" and that his one great deed led to "a degree of fame that he perhaps found burdensome".[14][43] Biographer Chris Coulthard-Clark summed up McNamara's "dilemma" as that of "an essentially ordinary man" thrust into the limelight by one "truly amazing episode".[43] His name is borne by Frank McNamara Park in Shepparton, Victoria,[44] and the Frank McNamara VC Club at Oakey Army Aviation Centre, Queensland.[45][46]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Frank Hubert McNamara.

• Bowyer, Chaz (2002) [1992]. For Valour: The Air VCs. London: Caxton. ISBN 1-84067-240-4.
• Chisholm, Alec H. (ed.) (1947). Who's Who in Australia 1947. Melbourne: The Herald and Weekly Times.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
• Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1991). The Third Brother: The Royal Australian Air Force 1921–39. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 0-04-442307-1. Archived from the original on 16 December 2013.
• Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1997). McNamara VC: A Hero's Dilemma. Canberra: Air Power Studies Centre. ISBN 0-642-26500-3.
• Cutlack, F.M. (1941) [1923]. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 (11th edition): Volume VIII – The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918. Sydney: Angus & Robertson.
• Dennis, Peter; Grey, Jeffrey; Morris, Ewan; Prior, Robin (2008) [1995]. The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History. South Melbourne, Victoria: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-551784-2.
• Garrisson, A.D. (1986). "McNamara, Frank Hubert (Francis) (1894–1961)". Australian Dictionary of Biography: Volume 10. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
• Gillison, Douglas (1962). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
• Helson, Peter (2006). Ten Years at the Top (PhD thesis). Sydney: University of New South Wales. OCLC 225531223.
• Herington, John (1963). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume IV – Air Power Over Europe 1944–1945. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
• Herington, John (1954). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume III – Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939–1943. Canberra: Australian War Memorial.
• Macklin, Robert (2008). Bravest: How Some of Australia's Greatest War Heroes Won Their Medals. Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 978-1-74114-882-4.
• Stephens, Alan (2006) [2001]. The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. London: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-555541-4.
• Stephens, Alan; Isaacs, Jeff (1996). High Fliers: Leaders of the Royal Australian Air Force. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 0-644-45682-5.
• Wilson, David (2005). The Brotherhood of Airmen. Crows Nest, New South Wales: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-74114-333-0.