page_title: Frank McNamara (RAAF officer)
section_title: Militia to Australian Flying Corps
hierarchical_section_title: Frank McNamara (RAAF officer) / World War I / Militia to Australian Flying Corps
caption_attribution_description: English: Australia: Victoria, Melbourne, Point Cook. Portrait of Lieutenant (Lt) F H McNamara. This is one of a series of photographs taken by the Darge Photographic Company which had the concession to take photographs at the Broadmeadows and Seymour army camps during the First World War.
context_page_description: Air Vice Marshal Francis Hubert McNamara, VC, CB, CBE was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth forces. Serving with the Australian Flying Corps, he was honoured for his actions on 20 March 1917, when he rescued a fellow pilot who had been forced down behind enemy lines. McNamara was the first Australian aviator—and the only one in World War I—to receive the Victoria Cross. He later became a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force.
  Born and educated in Victoria, McNamara was a teacher when he joined the militia prior to World War I. In 1915, he was selected for pilot training at Central Flying School, Point Cook, and transferred to the Australian Flying Corps the following year. He was based in the Middle Eastern Theatre with No. 1 Squadron when he earned the Victoria Cross. In 1921, McNamara enlisted as a flying officer in the newly formed RAAF, rising to the rank of air vice marshal by 1942. He held senior posts in England and Aden during World War II.
context_section_description: As a militia officer, McNamara was mobilised for service in Australia when war was declared in August 1914. After serving briefly at bases in Queenscliff and Point Nepean, Victoria, McNamara passed through Officers Training School at Broadmeadows in December. He began instructing at the Australian Imperial Force Training Depot, Broadmeadows, in February 1915. Promoted to lieutenant in July, he immediately volunteered for a military aeronautics course at Central Flying School, Point Cook.
  Selected for flying training at Point Cook in August 1915, McNamara made his first solo flight in a Bristol Boxkite on 18 September, and graduated as a pilot in October. On 6 January 1916, he was assigned as adjutant to No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps (also known until 1918 as No. 67 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps). In March, McNamara departed Melbourne for Egypt aboard HMAT Orsova, arriving in Suez the following month. He was seconded to No. 42 Squadron RFC in May to attend the  Central Flying School at Upavon, England; his secondment to the RFC was gazetted on 5 July 1916.
  Completing his course at Upavon, McNamara was posted back to Egypt in August, but was hospitalised on 8 September with orchitis. Discharged on 6 October, he served briefly as a flying instructor with No. 22 Squadron RFC, before returning to No. 1 Squadron. McNamara flew with C Flight, commanded by Captain (later Air Marshal Sir) Richard Williams. On his first sortie, a reconnaissance mission over Sinai, McNamara was unaware that his plane had been hit by anti-aircraft fire; he returned to base with his engine's oil supply almost exhausted. Flying B.E.2s and Martinsydes, he undertook further scouting and bombing missions in the ensuing months.
caption: Lieutenant McNamara at Point Cook, Victoria, 1916
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