William Hely

Air Vice Marshal William Lloyd Hely, CB, CBE, AFC (24 August 1909 – 20 May 1970) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

The third child of Prosper Frederick Hely, a storekeeper, and his wife Alice (née Lloyd), William Lloyd (Bill) Hely was born on 24 August 1909 at Wellington, New South Wales.

He was educated to Intermediate Certificate level at Mudgee, Wollongong and Rozelle Public Schools, and at Fort Street High School, Petersham.

Leaving school in 1926, he worked as a clerk and studied accountancy in his spare time.

On 16 February 1927, Hely entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as one of four cadets sponsored that year by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), which did not yet have its own officer training college.

As well as the four graduates the Air Force had enrolled in 1927, budgetary constraints imposed during the Great Depression necessitated the transfer from Duntroon to Point Cook of eight other RAAF-sponsored cadets midway through their four-year course, including Alister Murdoch, Bill Garing and Douglas Candy.

He graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1930 before transferring to the RAAF as a cadet pilot.

He graduated as a lieutenant on 9 December 1930, and the following day enlisted in the RAAF.

Initially ranked pilot officer, Hely commenced his flying training course at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria, on 15 January 1931, graduating on 10 December.

His early postings as a pilot in 1932 and 1933 were to RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, and RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria.

Qualifying in aerial photography, he served at Point Cook from 1933 to 1936.

He was then transferred to No. 3 Squadron at Richmond, receiving promotion to flight lieutenant.

Hely came to public attention in 1936–37, first when he crashed on a survey flight in the Northern Territory, and later when he undertook two successful missions to locate missing aircraft in the same vicinity.

His rescue efforts earned him the Air Force Cross.

In April 1936, Hely took command of No. 3 Squadron's North Australia Survey Flight, one of two such flights formed by the Air Force that month to carry out photographic surveys.

Flying a twin-engined de Havilland Dragon Rapide (serial number A3-2), Hely departed Richmond on 11 April for Port Hedland, which was to be the flight's base for its initial survey work in Western Australia.

Over the Northern Territory, between Newcastle Waters and Wave Hill, he became lost, ran out of fuel, and had to crash land.

He and his crew of two were found by RAAF search aircraft ten days later, on 22 April.

The Argus had reported that "grave fears" were held for their safety, but they were largely uninjured, Hely having suffered cuts and abrasions to his head and leg.

The aircraft was badly damaged and had to be transported back to Richmond in pieces.

In February 1937, Hely took part in the search for a missing Stinson airliner that was eventually found in the McPherson Range, Queensland, five of its seven passengers and crew dead.

For its 1937 aerial survey program, the RAAF formed the Communications and Survey Flight under No. 1 Aircraft Depot's Recruit Training Squadron at Laverton on 3 May.

The flight was divided into Western and Eastern Air Detachments, the former under Hely.

Flying a Tugan Gannet, Hely's first task became searching for survey director Sir Herbert Gepp, whose Rapide (A3-2, the same one Hely crash landed the previous year) had gone missing on an inspection flight in the Northern Territory between Tennant Creek and Tanimi.

Hely located the downed Rapide on 23 May, guiding in a ground party that was able to clear a makeshift runway and allow Gepp and his team to take off and resume their journey.

On 25 September, Hely was again diverted from survey work to search for a lost plane, this time the de Havilland Gipsy Moth of flying doctor Clyde Fenton, who had gone missing north-east of Newcastle Waters.

Hely, once more piloting Rapide A3-2, found the Moth three days later and landed to rescue the lost doctor.

Fenton was subsequently quoted as saying "I have only the highest praise for the efficient manner in which Hely conducted a difficult search and the skilful way in which he located me and picked me up."

The rescue efforts made Hely one of the RAAF's best-known public figures.

Completing his posting to the survey flight, he served as adjutant at Laverton in 1938.

He was awarded the Air Force Cross on 9 June for "zeal and initiative in searching for Sir Herbert Gepp's party and later for Dr. Fenton when lost in Central Australia".

On 29 November 1938, he married secretary Jean McDonald at St Aidan's Anglican Church in Launceston, Tasmania; the couple had two daughters.

After occupying staff positions during the early years of World War II, Hely was appointed Officer Commanding No. 72 Wing in Dutch New Guinea in May 1944.

Later that year he formed No. 84 (Army Cooperation) Wing, commanding it during the Bougainville campaign until the end of the Pacific War.

Hely spent the immediate post-war period on the staff of RAAF Headquarters, Melbourne.

From 1951 to 1953 he served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Western Area Command in Perth, after which he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

He was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1953 to 1956, AOC Training Command from 1956 to 1957, and Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, D.C. from 1957 to 1960.

He then served as Air Member for Personnel (AMP) for six years, his tenure coinciding with a significant increase in manpower to meet commitments in South East Asia and the demands of a major re-equipment program.

Having been promoted acting air vice marshal in 1953 (substantive in 1956), he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1964 for his service as AMP.

He retired from the Air Force in 1966 and made his home in Canberra, where he died in 1970 at the age of sixty.