Richard Williams (RAAF Officer) - Legacy

Legacy

The RAAF's greatest achievement in its first eighteen years was ... simply to survive as an independent service... Many people contributed to that achievement, but none more than Dicky Williams.

For his stewardship of the Air Force prior to World War II, as well as his part in its establishment in 1921, Williams is considered the "father" of the RAAF. The epithet had earlier been applied to Eric Harrison, who had sole charge of Central Flying School after Henry Petre was posted to the Middle East in 1915, and was also a founding member of the RAAF. By the 1970s, however, the mantle had settled on Williams. Between the wars he had continually striven for his service's status as a separate branch of the Australian armed forces, seeing off a number of challenges to its independence from Army and Navy interests. He remains the RAAF's longest-serving Chief, totalling thirteen years over three terms: October to December 1922; February 1925 to December 1932; and June 1934 to February 1939.

In his 1925 paper "Memorandum Regarding the Air Defence of Australia", Williams defined "the fundamental nature of Australia's defence challenge" and "the enduring characteristics of the RAAF's strategic thinking". Ignored by the government of the day, the study's operational precepts became the basis for Australia's defence strategy in the 1980s, which remains in place in the 21st century. However his input to debate in the 1930s around the "Singapore strategy" of dependence on the Royal Navy for the defence of the Pacific region has been criticised as limited, and as having "failed to demonstrate the validity of his claims for the central role of air power".

Williams' legacy extends to the very look of the RAAF. He personally chose the colour of the Air Force's winter uniform, a shade "somewhere between royal and navy blue", designed to distinguish it from the lighter Royal Air Force shade. Unique at the time among Commonwealth forces, the uniform was changed to an all-purpose middle blue suit in 1972 but following numerous complaints in the ensuing years reverted to Williams' original colour and style in 2000.

Memorials to Williams include Sir Richard Williams Avenue at Adelaide Airport, and RAAF Williams in Victoria, established in 1999 after the merger of Point Cook and Laverton bases. In 2005, Williams' Australian Flying Corps wings, usually on display at the RAAF Museum in Point Cook, were carried into space and back on a shuttle flight by Australian-born astronaut Dr Andy Thomas. The Williams Foundation, named in his honour, was launched in February 2009 "to broaden public debate on issues relating to Australian defence and security".