page_title: Adrian Cole (RAAF officer)
section_title: Retirement and legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Adrian Cole (RAAF officer) / Retirement and legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Penang, Malaya. C. 1945-07. Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, Allied Air Commander-in-Chief, South East Asia (centre), with Air Marshal Sir Hugh Saunders, Air Marshal Commanding RAF Burma (right), and Air Vice Marshal A. T. Cole, RAAF Observer Officer (extreme left), on Georgetown airfield, near Penang.
context_page_description: Air Vice Marshal Adrian Lindley Trevor Cole, CBE, DSO, MC, DFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. Joining the army at the outbreak of World War I, he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps in 1916 and flew with No. 1 Squadron in the Middle East and No. 2 Squadron on the Western Front. He became an ace, credited with victories over ten enemy aircraft, and earned the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1921, he was a founding member of the RAAF.
  "King" Cole rose to the position of Air Member for Supply in 1933 and gained promotion to group captain in 1935. The following year he was appointed the first commanding officer of Headquarters RAAF Station Richmond. During World War II, he led North-Western Area Command in Darwin, Northern Territory, and held a series of overseas posts in North Africa, England, Northern Ireland, and Ceylon. As Forward Air Controller during the Dieppe Raid in 1942, he was wounded in action and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. Cole served on corporate boards of directors following his retirement from the RAAF in 1946. He died in 1966 at the age of seventy.
context_section_description: Cole was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946, along with several other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, primarily to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers. In an earlier minute to the Minister for Air, Arthur Drakeford, regarding post-war command prospects, Air Vice Marshal Jones had assessed Cole as having failed to display "certain of those qualities expected to be possessed by senior officers of such rank". In any case, his role overseas was redundant. Cole, for his part, later wrote to the Melbourne Herald that he considered the RAAF's administration during World War II to be "weak", and that as a consequence he felt "a lot happier to serve most of the War with the Royal Air Force".
  Ranked substantive air commodore and honorary air vice marshal, Cole was officially discharged from the RAAF on 17 April 1946. He resented being forcibly retired, and stood for election as the Liberal Party candidate for Drakeford's seat, the Victorian Division of Maribyrnong, in the federal election that year. Cole stated that his candidacy was "an endeavour to bring some sense and stability to Government administration" but was unsuccessful, and Drakeford retained the seat. Cole subsequently served as a director with Pacific Insurance and Guinea Airways. He died in Melbourne of chronic respiratory disease on 14 February 1966. Survived by his wife and four children, he was buried in Camperdown Cemetery, Victoria, following a funeral at RAAF Base Laverton.
  Cole Street and the Cole Street Conservation Precinct at Point Cook Base, RAAF Williams, are named for Adrian Cole. His decorations were held by the Naval and Military Club, Melbourne, where he had been a long-standing member. In July 2009, following the club's dissolution, the medals were to be auctioned along with other memorabilia. This action was challenged by Cole's family, who argued that his decorations were only on loan to the club, and should be donated to the Australian War Memorial (AWM). As the Supreme Court of Victoria deliberated on the case, the parties involved negotiated a settlement whereby Cole's medals would be transferred to the AWM.
caption: Cole (far left) as RAAF Liaison Officer to South East Asia Command, with Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park (centre) and Air Marshal Sir Hugh Saunders (far right), near Penang, c. August 1945
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