Valston Hancock

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sir Valston Hancock
Air Marshal
UnitRAAF Command (1942–43)
Western Area Command (1943–44)
Commands heldNo. 1 BAGS (1940–41)
No. 100 Squadron (1945)
No. 71 Wing (1945)
RAAF College (1947–49)
No. 224 Group RAF (1957–59)
Operational Command (1959–61)
Chief of the Air Staff (1961–65)
Battles/warsWorld War II
Companion of the Order of the Bath
Distinguished Flying Cross
RelationsLang Hancock (cousin)
Other workCo-founder, Australia Defence Association

CB, DFC (31 May 1907 – 29 September 1998) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1961 to 1965. A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Hancock transferred from the Army to the RAAF in 1929 and qualified as a pilot. His administrative training at Duntroon saw him mainly occupy staff posts, including Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence at RAAF Headquarters from 1931 to 1935, and Director of Works and Buildings from 1937 to 1939. During the early years of World War II, he commanded No. 1 Bombing and Gunnery School, and held senior planning and administrative positions. He eventually saw combat in the Aitape–Wewak campaign of the Pacific War during 1945. Flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers, he led first No. 100 Squadron, and later No. 71 Wing. His actions earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross
.

After the war, Hancock became the inaugural commandant of

forward airfields for the defence of the continent. He also evaluated potential replacements for the RAAF's English Electric Canberra bomber, finding the American "TFX" (later the General Dynamics F-111
) to be the most suitable for Australia's needs, though he did not recommend its immediate purchase due to its early stage of development. After retiring from the military in May 1965, Hancock co-founded the Australia Defence Association. He died in 1998, aged 91.

Early career

High jumper watched by a crowd of people, most wearing dark military uniforms with peaked caps
Hancock competing in the high jump at an RAAF sports carnival in the early 1930s

Valston Eldridge Hancock was born on 31 May 1907 in

sergeant-major as a senior cadet, Hancock graduated as a lieutenant on 12 December 1928,[5] earning the Sword of Honour.[3][6] His preferred career path in the military was engineering, and it was only when he found there was no vacancy in his corps of choice, and that he had instead been earmarked for the artillery, that he put his name forward for transfer to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).[7][8] On 1 February 1929, Hancock was seconded to the RAAF as a temporary pilot officer.[9][10] He undertook flying instruction at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria, and was promoted flying officer on 1 July 1930.[8][11] In September 1931, Hancock's transfer to the RAAF was retroactively approved with effect from 1 February 1929.[12]

Hancock's initial postings after qualifying as a pilot were to Nos. 1 and 3 Squadrons.[1] It was common practice for Duntroon graduates to be given positions in the Air Force because of their training in administration, and Hancock spent most of the 1930s in a succession of posts at RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne.[7] From 1931 to 1935, he served as Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence,[1] with promotion to flight lieutenant on 1 July 1934.[13] He married Joan Butler on 26 May 1932; the couple had two sons and a daughter.[14] By 1935, Hancock had been appointed Staff Officer to the Chief of the Air Staff.[1][15] In 1937 he was posted to Britain to attend the RAF Staff College, Andover. Like other Commonwealth air forces, the RAAF maintained close technological and educational ties with the Royal Air Force, and Hancock was one of thirty Australian officers to pass through Andover before the outbreak of World War II.[7][16] Returning to Australia in 1938, he became Director of Works and Buildings, commonly known as "Works and Bricks", at RAAF Headquarters, and was promoted to squadron leader on 1 March 1939.[17][18]

World War II

Five men, four of whom are standing and one seated, wearing dark-coloured military uniforms
Group Captains Hancock (centre) and Walters (second left), Air Commodore Hewitt (second right), and Chief of the Air Staff, AVM Jones (right), 1942

In March 1940, Hancock's Directorate of Works and Buildings was transferred from the office of the Chief of the Air Staff to the newly formed Organisation and Equipment Branch under Air Marshal

South West Pacific Area that April.[26] He was made Director of Plans at the Air Force's main operational formation, RAAF Command, when it was established in September.[27] In 1943–44, he served as Staff Officer Administration for Western Area Command, which maintained two bomber squadrons for anti-submarine patrols and two fighter squadrons to guard against possible attack on the mainland by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft.[17][28]

Four twin-engined military aircraft in low-level flight over the ocean
No. 100 Squadron Beauforts near Wewak, 1945

Hancock finally gained a combat command in January 1945, when he took charge of

London Gazette on 22 February 1946.[32][33]

Post-war career

Portrait of moustachioed man in dark military uniform with pilot's wings on left pocket
Air Commodore Hancock as inaugural commandant of RAAF College, Point Cook, c. 1948

Among a small coterie of wartime RAAF commanders considered suitable for future senior roles, Hancock retained his rank of group captain following the end of hostilities.

Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1953 New Years Honours.[44] On 16 October that year, Hancock took over from Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin as Air Member for Personnel (AMP),[45] and was promoted substantive air vice-marshal on 1 January 1954.[46] As AMP, he occupied a seat on the Air Board, the service's controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers and which was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff.[47][48] Completing his term on 3 January 1955,[49] Hancock was posted to Britain as Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in London.[7][47] He spent much of the latter half of 1955 and early 1956 laid low by a stomach ailment that was initially diagnosed as amoebic dysentery but later thought to be Malta fever or malaria.[50]

In March 1957, Hancock was one of three candidates, along with Air Vice-Marshals

gazetted on 2 June.[57]

Two men in light-coloured military uniforms with peaked caps, shaking hands in front of a row of similarly dressed men
Air Vice-Marshal Hancock (right) greeting personnel of No. 78 Wing in Malta, where the unit was on garrison duty, August 1953

As CAS, Hancock worked to enhance the RAAF's deterrent capability in the Pacific region, particularly in light of heightened tensions with Indonesia during its period of

RAAF Butterworth to engage and destroy Indonesian aircraft violating Malay air space.[59] The following month he urged using RAAF Canberras from Butterworth to make pre-emptive strikes against Indonesian air bases, in retaliation for incursions into West Malaysia, but Britain, which had initially requested Australia's involvement, held back on action.[60]

Once the F-111 had been ordered, Hancock sought a suitable forward airfield from which they could operate. In this, he continued a policy initiated by his predecessor as CAS, Air Marshal Scherger, of developing a chain of so-called "

SEATO arrangements. Hancock proposed that Australia continue to command the facility and provide local air defence, though this effectively made the Sabres a support unit in the war effort and therefore potential targets of North Vietnamese attack; as it happened, none occurred.[66]

Later life

Hancock retired from the Air Force in May 1965 after completing his term as CAS, which the government had extended for twelve months beyond its original three years.[9][67] Having followed two fellow Royal Military College graduates (McCauley and Scherger) in the role, he was succeeded by another former Duntroon cadet, Alister Murdoch.[7][68] Hancock's name was put forward as a successor to Scherger when the latter's term as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee completed in May 1966, but Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies preferred General Sir John Wilton for the position.[7] Later the same year, Hancock took over as Commissioner-General for Australia at Expo 67 in Montreal, Canada, following the sudden death of the previous appointee, Vice Admiral Sir Hastings Harrington.[69] In 1975, prompted in part by the fall of Saigon in April that year, Hancock co-founded the Australia Defence Association as an independent think tank for defence matters, and chaired its Western Australian chapter.[7][70] He was also active in the Royal Commonwealth Society, and published an autobiography, Challenge, in 1990.[7][71] Hancock continued to fly in retirement, joining his cousin Lang, also a pilot, in promoting the Pilbara mining district.[72] Val Hancock died in Perth on 29 September 1998, and was survived by his wife and three children.[1][72] He is commemorated by Sir Valston Hancock Drive at Evans Head, New South Wales.[19]

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f Air Marshals Archived 1 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine at Royal Australian Air Force. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  2. ^ Commonwealth of Australia, "Parliamentary Debates", p. 9910
  3. ^
    National Centre of Biography, Australian National University
    . Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  4. ^ "Royal Military College of Australia". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 25. 19 March 1925. p. 378.
  5. ^ "Australian Military Forces". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 136. 13 December 1928. p. 3485.
  6. ^ Moore, Duntroon, pp. 457–459
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Dennis et al, Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, p. 254
  8. ^ a b Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 196
  9. ^ a b "Hancock, Valston Eldridge". World War Two Nominal Roll. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  10. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 16. 14 February 1929. p. 351.
  11. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 76. 28 August 1930. p. 1769.
  12. ^ "Australian Military Forces". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 84. 15 October 1931. p. 1698.
  13. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 1. 4 January 1935. p. 20.
  14. ^ Draper, Who's Who in Australia 1983, pp. 381–382
  15. ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 154
  16. ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 81, 90–91
  17. ^ a b c Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 94–95 Archived 13 July 2015 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 24. 20 April 1939. p. 648.
  19. ^ a b "Evans Head Memorial Aerodrome". Heritage Branch, NSW Department of Planning. Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  20. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 124. 4 July 1940. p. 1422.
  21. ^ RAAF Historical Section, Units of the Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 9–10
  22. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 238
  23. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 96. 15 May 1941. p. 1030.
  24. ^ "No. 35399". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1942. p. 13.
  25. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 183. 2 July 1942. p. 1593.
  26. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 473 Archived 22 January 2016 at the Wayback Machine
  27. ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 588 Archived 5 June 2009 at WebCite
  28. ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, p. 141
  29. ^ a b Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 337–342
  30. ^ a b c Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 342–348
  31. ^ Long, The Final Campaigns, p. 360
  32. ^ "Recommendation: Distinguished Flying Cross" (PDF). Index to Recommendations: Second World War. Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  33. ^ "No. 37479". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 February 1946. p. 1075.
  34. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 24–25
  35. ^ Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 238–239
  36. ^ a b c Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 254–255
  37. ^ Stephens, Power Plus Attitude, p. 116
  38. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 11, 18–19
  39. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 94. 29 May 1947. p. 1454.
  40. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 94. 29 May 1947. p. 1456.
  41. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 186
  42. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 13. 9 March 1950. p. 572.
  43. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 56. 26 July 1951. p. 1924.
  44. ^ "No. 39734". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1953. p. 40.
  45. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 64. 22 October 1953. p. 2884.
  46. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 6. 4 February 1954. p. 388.
  47. ^ a b Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 499–500
  48. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112
  49. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 74. 2 December 1954. p. 3559.
  50. ^ Department of Defence, Personal Correspondence, pp. 14–21
  51. ^ Stephens; Isaacs, High Fliers, p. 123
  52. ^ Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 274–275
  53. ^ "No. 41568". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 December 1958. p. 7505.
  54. ^ Stephens; Isaacs, High Fliers, p. 137
  55. ^ "Royal Australian Air Force". Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. No. 65. 22 September 1960. p. 3329.
  56. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 368
  57. ^ "No. 42684". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 June 1962. p. 4344.
  58. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 283–286
  59. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 264–265
  60. ^ Dennis; Grey, Emergency and Confrontation, pp. 228–229
  61. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 57–58
  62. ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 290
  63. ^ Odgers, 100 Years of Australians at War, pp. 300–312
  64. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 422–423
  65. ^ Coulthard-Clark, The RAAF in Vietnam, pp. 28–29, 80
  66. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 277–278
  67. ^ Department of Defence, Personal Correspondence, p. 3
  68. ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 320–321
  69. ^ Department of Defence, Personal Correspondence, p. 2
  70. ^ What are the origins and history of the Australia Defence Association? Archived 1 October 2007 at the Wayback Machine at Australia Defence Association. Retrieved 14 April 2011.
  71. ^ Helson, Ten Years at the Top, p.314
  72. ^ a b Stein, Tristan (6 October 1998). "Airforce ace promoted Pilbara". The West Australian. p. 24.

References

Further reading
Military offices
Preceded by
Air Vice-Marshal Frederick Scherger
 Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
1951–1952 		Succeeded by
Air Vice-Marshal William Hely
Preceded by
Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin
 Air Member for Personnel
1953–1955 		Succeeded by
Air Vice-Marshal William Hely
Preceded by
Air Marshal Sir Frederick Scherger
 Chief of the Air Staff
1961–1965 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valston_Hancock&oldid=1194450136"