John Lloyd Waddy

John Lloyd Waddy, (10 December 1916 – 11 September 1987) was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and later served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Minister of the Crown.

As a fighter pilot during World War II, he shot down 15 enemy aircraft during the North African campaign, becoming one of Australia's top-scoring aces and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Waddy went on to command No. 80 Squadron in the South West Pacific, where he was awarded the US Air Medal.

Born in Sydney on 10 December 1916, Waddy was the son of first-class cricketer Edgar Lloyd Waddy and his wife Lottchen, and great-grandson of General Sir Richard Waddy, KCB.

His four siblings included a sister and three brothers.

Edgar Waddy established the real estate firm of E.L. Waddy & Son in Rose Bay, which John joined as a clerk after completing his education at the King's School, Parramatta.

He was quoted in The Canberra Times that April offering his message of congratulation to the RAF on the 25th anniversary of its foundation: "You should not have many more birthdays before 'Jerry' and the Japs are shot clean out of the skies. Here's hoping."

Edgar had taken a short-service commission with the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1930s, and Richard trained in Canada with EATS during the war before active duty in Britain, where he was killed flying a single-engined fighter in 1941.

Waddy's elder sister, Lett, was commissioned into the Women's Volunteer Naval Reserve, and his younger brother Rowen served as an officer with Z Special Unit in the South West Pacific.

He married Vera Nellie May (Ve) Dengate on 21 July 1938.

The couple had a son, Lloyd, and two daughters, Denise and Rosalind.

Waddy enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in late 1940, learning to fly under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) in Southern Rhodesia.

His two older brothers, Edgar and Richard, were also pilots.

Completing his training in June 1941, Pilot Officer Waddy was posted to the North African theatre with No. 250 (Fighter) Squadron RAF, operating P-40 Tomahawks and, later, Kittyhawks.

He was befriended and mentored by the RAAF's top-scoring ace, Clive "Killer" Caldwell, who became godfather to Waddy's daughter.

Waddy's first operational sortie was as Caldwell's wingman; he found the ensuing dogfight so fast and confusing that he had no idea what was happening and afterwards had to ask the more experienced pilot how things had gone.

On 9 December, he registered his first victory—in a Tomahawk that had previously been Caldwell's personal mount—when he shared in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engined fighter near El Adem.

By the end of April 1942, Waddy had scored four-and-a-half victories over enemy aircraft.

Promoted flying officer, he achieved four "kills" in a single sortie on 12 May 1942, destroying two Junkers Ju 52 cargo planes and two escorting Bf 110s from a German air transport convoy operating between Crete and North Africa.

He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) for this action, gazetted on 2 October.

The citation praised his "masterly airmanship as a fighter pilot" and his "great courage and devotion to duty".

Shortly after claiming a victory over a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on 22 May, Waddy was posted to another RAF unit, No. 260 Squadron, flying Kittyhawks.

He accounted for two enemy aircraft in June, before being assigned to No. 4 Squadron, South African Air Force, with which he destroyed a Bf 109 in September.

In October, Waddy began flying Spitfire Vs in No. 92 Squadron RAF.

He claimed a further three victories with his latest unit before being posted back to Australia on 19 November 1942.

His final tally of fifteen and a half victories made him one of the most successful Allied fighter pilots in the Desert War, and second only to Caldwell among the RAAF contingent.

In February 1943, Waddy took charge of the Spitfire Squadron of No. 2 Operational Training Unit (No. 2 OTU), based at Mildura, Victoria.

Fellow aces and Desert War veterans Clive Caldwell, Wilf Arthur and Bobby Gibbes were also instructors at No. OTU before their combat postings in the South West Pacific; in December 1943, Caldwell and Waddy nearly collided when they crossed paths during an aerobatics display at No. 5 Service Flying Training School in Uranquinty, New South Wales.

Waddy undertook a staff course the following year, and was promoted to squadron leader.

He was posted to Noemfoor in the Dutch East Indies in September 1944 to command No. 80 Squadron; his unit was part of No. 78 (Fighter) Wing of the Australian First Tactical Air Force (No. 1 TAF), led by Air Commodore Harry Cobby.

Operating Kittyhawks, No. 80 Squadron undertook dive bombing and strafing missions against Japanese targets, but saw little air combat.

Earlier that month, Waddy had asked his intelligence officer to produce a "profit and loss statement" for No. 80 Squadron, covering the period 1 October 1944 to 31 March 1945, to "bring out the fact that the expenditure by the squadron was not compensated for by the achievements of the Squadron".

He was one of eight senior pilots who took part in the "Morotai Mutiny" of April 1945.

In April 1945, Waddy joined Caldwell, Arthur, Gibbes and four other senior pilots of No. 1 TAF in an action that became known as the "Morotai Mutiny".

The eight attempted to resign their commissions in protest at the relegation of the RAAF's fighter squadrons to apparently worthless ground attack missions.

Discharged from the Permanent Air Force at the end of the war, Waddy took a commission in the RAAF Reserve and led the organisation as a group captain in the early 1950s.

He was active in business and in veterans' groups, and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1955.

From 1962 to 1976, he was the Member for Kirribilli in the New South Wales Parliament, representing the Liberal Party.

He held cabinet posts including Minister for Child Welfare and Social Welfare (later Youth and Community Services), Minister for Health, and Minister for Police and Services.

Waddy retired from politics in 1976, and died in 1987 at the age of 70.