21 Facts About William Hely

Air Vice Marshal William Lloyd Hely, CB, CBE, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force.

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

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

William Hely then served as Air Member for Personnel 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.

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

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

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

In February 1937, William 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.

Two days later, the Japanese bombed Darwin, Northern Territory; William Hely circulated a memo early the next month to all commands on the lessons learnt from the raid.

William Hely was posted to Darwin in May to join North-Western Area headquarters as senior air staff officer, and was granted the temporary rank of group captain in January 1943.

William Hely was by this time among a coterie of officers at group captain level, including Val Hancock, Alister Murdoch and Bill Garing, earmarked by the Australian Air Board for leadership roles in the post-war RAAF, which was to shrink rapidly with demobilisation.

At RAAF Headquarters, William Hely was appointed deputy director of Operations, in which capacity he served on a committee to investigate proposals for an officer training college, later established as RAAF College, Point Cook.

William Hely was appointed Director of Organisation and Staff Duties in 1946.

William Hely was promoted to acting air commodore in July 1952, becoming Air Officer Commanding Western Area.

William Hely was succeeded as DCAS by Air Vice Marshal Douglas Candy.

William Hely was succeeded as AOC Training Command by Air Vice Marshal Ian McLachlan.

William Hely himself initiated a scheme to attract staff from the Royal Air Force, which was suffering cutbacks, by opening a recruitment office in London and taking advantage of the Australian government's assisted passage scheme to import trained personnel and their families.

William Hely was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1964 New Year Honours for his "tactful and careful handling of personnel matters", and for having "done much to improve the manning level of the Air Force".

William Hely was closely involved in deliberations concerning the balance of academic and military studies at the RAAF Academy, the outcome of which is considered to have left the course biased towards pure science, rather than its applications to air power.

William Hely was succeeded the following day as AMP by Air Vice Marshal Candy.

In retirement, William Hely was active in the Canberra branch of the Air Force Association.