page_title: Richard Williams (RAAF officer)
section_title: Early career
hierarchical_section_title: Richard Williams (RAAF officer) / Early career
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM Caption: LIEUTENANT RICHARD WILLIAMS AND MRS. WILLIAMS, C.1915.
context_page_description: Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams, KBE, CB, DSO is widely regarded as the "father" of the Royal Australian Air Force. He was the first military pilot trained in Australia, and went on to command Australian and British fighter units in World War I. A proponent for air power independent of other branches of the armed services, Williams played a leading role in the establishment of the RAAF and became its first Chief of the Air Staff in 1922. He served as CAS for thirteen years over three terms, longer than any other officer.
  Williams came from a working-class background in South Australia. He was a lieutenant in the Army when he learned to fly at Point Cook, Victoria, in 1914. As a pilot with the Australian Flying Corps in World War I, Williams rose to command No. 1 Squadron AFC, and later 40th Wing RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and finished the war a lieutenant colonel. Afterwards he campaigned for an Australian Air Force run separately to the Army and Navy, which came into being on 31 March 1921.
context_section_description: Williams was born on 3 August 1890 into a working-class family in Moonta Mines, South Australia. He was the eldest son of Richard Williams, a copper miner who had emigrated from Cornwall, England, and his wife Emily. Leaving Moonta Public School at junior secondary level, Williams worked as a telegraph messenger and later as a bank clerk. He enlisted in a militia unit, the South Australian Infantry Regiment, in 1909 at the age of nineteen. Commissioned a second lieutenant on 8 March 1911, he joined the Permanent Military Forces the following year.
  In August 1914, Lieutenant Williams took part in Australia's inaugural military flying course at Central Flying School, run by Lieutenants Henry Petre and Eric Harrison. After soloing in a Bristol Boxkite around the airfield at Point Cook, Victoria, Williams became the first student to graduate as a pilot, on 12 November 1914. He recalled the school as a "ragtime show" consisting of a paddock, tents, and one large structure: a shed for the Boxkite. Following an administrative and instructional posting, Williams underwent advanced flying training at Point Cook in July 1915. The next month he married Constance Esther Griffiths, who was thirteen years his senior. The couple had no children.
caption: Richard and Constance Williams, c. 1915
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