Henry Wrigley - Retirement and Legacy

Retirement and Legacy

Wrigley was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946, along with a number of other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, ostensibly to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers. Keenly disappointed with the decision, Wrigley was officially discharged on 6 June. He found it difficult to secure civilian employment because, "by the time I got back, all the worthwhile jobs round Australia had been snapped up by people, not only air force people but other people on the spot". After an unsuccessful attempt to run his own retail business, he "eventually earned a living by taking on some administrative jobs which carried on for a few years". Wrigley was made an honorary air vice marshal in July 1956. In 1966 he became executive officer of the Victorian Overseas Foundation, and later a trustee. He published Aircraft and Economic Development: The RAAF Contribution through the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1969. In March 1971, he was among a select group of surviving founding members of the RAAF who attended a celebratory dinner at the Hotel Canberra to mark the service's Golden Jubilee; his fellow guests included Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, Air Vice Marshal Bill Anderson, Air Commodore Hippolyte De La Rue, and Wing Commander Sir Lawrence Wackett. After the death of his first wife, Marjorie, Wrigley married Zenda Edwards on 5 January 1972. In December 1979, he was the guest of honour at celebrations marking sixty years of flying at Darwin; the RAAF flew him from Point Cook to Darwin to commemorate his historic 1919 flight with Arthur Murphy. Wrigley wrote a history of the Victorian branch of the United Services Institution in 1980. Aged ninety-five, he died in Melbourne on 14 September 1987.

Throughout his life, Wrigley was an "inveterate note-taker" who compiled extensive documentation concerning the theory and practice of air power, on which he lectured among colleagues in the RAAF during the 1920s. The concepts that he propagated included air superiority, the need for an air force to be separate from the other branches of the armed services, control of the air as a means of carrying out offensive strikes, and the substitution of aerial forces for ground troops. While arguing for the independence of the air arm, Wrigley was quick to dispel any notion that it would simply "arrive from God knows where, drop bombs God knows where, and go off again God knows where"; rather it should act in concert with the army and navy in furtherance of government policy. He is thus credited with laying the foundations for the RAAF's modern air power doctrine, which would eventually be codified as the Air Power Manual in 1990. Wrigley's widow bequeathed twenty volumes of his writings, maps and photographs to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook after his death; they were edited and published by Air Commodore Brendan O'Loghlin and Wing Commander Alan Stephens in 1990 as The Decisive Factor: Air Power Doctrine by Air Vice-Marshal H.N. Wrigley. In 1996, Wrigley's former residence as commanding officer of RAAF Station Laverton prior to World War II was christened Wrigley House in his honour. His name is also borne by Henry Wrigley Drive, approaching Darwin International Airport. In March 2010 the Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin, established the AVM H.N. Wrigley Prize for air power analysis, as part of the annual Chief of Air Force Essay Competition.