Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Frank Hubert McNamara VC was born in 1894 at Rushworth, a great little goldmining town in my electorate of Murray. Frank was the eldest of his parents' eight surviving children. He went to school at Rushworth and then trained as a teacher. When World War I broke out, Frank volunteered and graduated as a pilot in the brand-new No.1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps. It was January 1916. Frank McNamara became the first and only Australian airman to be awarded the Victoria Cross during the First World War, and he was one of only two RAAF commanders to have held air officer commanding posts in the European theatre of the Second World War.

After being invalided out as unfit for active flying service, Frank went on to have an extraordinary career in assisting the winning of the Second World War. In particular, he helped to organise the Empire Air Training Scheme in WWII, where Australian and other Commonwealth volunteers for Bomber Command crews were trained across the Commonwealth. In the case of Australia, it was agreed that each month they would provide to the UK 784 pilots, air observers, wireless operators and air gunners, who were to be trained to the highest standards possible. There were ultimately, altogether, 10,000 Australian aircrew in Bomber Command in World War II. Four thousand of those were killed. We are very proud of the work of our great hero Frank McNamara, VC.