1. The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff at the outbreak of World War II, William Bostock was considered a leading candidate for the position of Chief of the Air Staff in 1942 but was passed over in favour of Air Commodore George Jones, a friend of twenty years.
William Bostock was educated at The School, Mount Victoria, in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, where he completed his junior certificate.
In November 1914, William Bostock joined the 2nd Signal Troop of the Australian Imperial Force as a sapper.
William Bostock landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, serving there until August, when he was evacuated suffering from dysentery.
William Bostock returned to active duty in January 1916, and was promoted to lance corporal the following month.
William Bostock transferred from the AIF to the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve on 18 February 1917, and was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant.
William Bostock fought on the Western Front and was awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre.
William Bostock was invalided back to Britain in March 1918, after which he transferred to the newly created Royal Air Force.
William Bostock married his Australian fiancee, Gwendolen Norton, in Southampton on 6 March 1919.
The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff position that William Bostock occupied at the outbreak of World War II was a new one that initially augmented, and later supplanted, an existing Assistant Chief of the Air Staff role.
William Bostock was the RAAF's delegate to a defence conference in Singapore in October 1940; the Australian contingent found the local forces ill-prepared for an attack by the Japanese and recommended significant increases in air capability, both in Australia and the Pacific Islands, to meet the threat.
William Bostock rose rapidly in rank during this period, becoming acting air commodore on 1 June 1940 and substantive air vice marshal on 1 October 1941.
William Bostock was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1942 New Year Honours.
Third in seniority in the RAAF after Air Marshal Richard Williams and Air Vice Marshal Stanley Goble, and considered, in the words of historian Chris Coulthard-Clark, to be "among the Air Force's best brains" at the time, Bostock was a prime candidate for the position of CAS in May 1942.
William Bostock was first choice of the incumbent CAS, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, whose two-year term was coming to an end.
William Bostock was chosen to be Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command, with twenty-four Australian squadrons at his disposal plus one each from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.
The only Australian air combat units in the SWPA not under William Bostock's command were those based in New Guinea as No 9 Operational Group RAAF, controlled by Fifth Air Force.
William Bostock proposed that it be renamed Northern Area Command to better reflect its current function.
From 1942, the structure of the RAAF was divided such that William Bostock was in operational charge of the Air Force in the South West Pacific but relied on Air Vice Marshal Jones as CAS for supplies of manpower and equipment, while Jones was nominally in command of the entire RAAF but played no part in directing its major air operations against Japan.
William Bostock replied that as AOC RAAF Command he was "responsible to Commander, Allied Air Forces, and not, repeat not, subordinate to you", and that he would "continue to take the strongest exception to your unwarranted and uninformed interference".
William Bostock was not consulted about the decision and fully expected to see Australian aircraft as he watched for the Allied formations from a US warship during the battle.
William Bostock later said that he would have thankfully "fallen through a crack in the boards on the deck" when he saw only American aircraft flying overhead, and had to apologise to Kenney for the RAAF's absence.
William Bostock was one of several senior Air Force commanders summarily retired early in 1946, in his case six years before the compulsory retirement age of 60.
William Bostock was decorated twice in 1948 for his war service, in March with the Distinguished Service Order "in recognition of distinguished services whilst in command of air operations in the Borneo Campaign during the period March to September, 1945", and in April with the American Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm.
William Bostock entered politics in 1949, standing as a Liberal Party candidate for the Federal Division of Indi in Victoria.
William Bostock served on a joint committee for foreign affairs and sometimes came into conflict with his own party on matters of defence policy.
William Bostock continued to contribute to The Herald while in government.
William Bostock further proposed that a single Commander-in-Chief lead the Army, Navy and Air Force; the Chief of the General Staff, the Chief of the Naval Staff, and the Chief of the Air Staff would report directly to the new position.
William Bostock owned a property near Benalla, in rural Victoria, where he died in 1968.