John Lloyd Waddy John Lloyd Waddy OBE , DFC ( 10 December 1916 – 11 September 1987 ) was a senior officer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) , who later served as a member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly and Minister of the Crown . As a fighter pilot during World War II , he shot down fifteen enemy aircraft in the Desert War , becoming one of Australia ' s top - scoring aces and earning the Distinguished Flying Cross . He went on to command No . 80 Squadron in the South West Pacific , where he was awarded the US Air Medal . He was also one of eight senior pilots who took part in the " Morotai Mutiny " of April 1945 . Discharged from the Permanent Air Force at the end of the war , Waddy took a commission in the RAAF Reserve , leading the organisation as a group captain in the early 1950s . He was active in business and in veterans ' groups , and was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1955 . As the Liberal Member for Kirribilli from 1962 to 1976 , he held cabinet posts in the New South Wales Parliament , including Minister for Child Welfare and Social Welfare ( later Youth and Community Services ) , Minister for Health , and Minister for Police and Services . He retired from politics in 1976 , and died in 1987 at the age of seventy . Family and early life . Born in Sydney on 10 December 1916 , Waddy was the son of first - class cricketer Edgar Lloyd Waddy and his wife Lottchen , and great - grandson of General Sir Richard Waddy KCB . His four siblings included a sister and three brothers . Edgar Waddy established the real estate firm of E . L . Waddy & Son in Rose Bay , which John joined as a clerk after completing his education at The King ' s School , Parramatta . He married Vera Nellie May ( Ve ) Dengate on 21 July 1938 ; the couple had a son , Lloyd , and two daughters , Denise and Rosalind . Waddy enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) in late 1940 , learning to fly under the Empire Air Training Scheme ( EATS ) in Rhodesia . His two older brothers , Edgar and Richard , were also pilots . Edgar had taken a short - service commission with the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) in the 1930s , while Richard trained in Canada with EATS during the war prior to active duty in Britain , where he was killed flying a single - engined fighter in 1941 . Waddy ' s elder sister , Lett , was commissioned into the Women ' s Volunteer Naval Reserve , and his younger brother Rowen served as an officer with Z Special Unit in the South West Pacific . World War II . North Africa . Completing his training in June 1941 , Pilot Officer Waddy was posted to the North African theatre with No . 250 ( Fighter ) Squadron RAF , operating P - 40 Tomahawks and , later , Kittyhawks . He was befriended and mentored by the RAAF ' s top - scoring ace , Clive " Killer " Caldwell , who became godfather to Waddy ' s daughter . Waddy ' s first operational sortie was as Caldwell ' s wingman ; he found the ensuing dogfight so fast and confusing that he had no idea what was happening and afterwards had to ask the more experienced pilot how things had gone . On 9 December , however , he registered his first victory — in a Tomahawk that had previously been Caldwell ' s personal mount — when he shared in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin - engined fighter near El Adem . By the end of April 1942 , Waddy had scored four - and - a - half victories over enemy aircraft . Promoted flying officer , he achieved four " kills " in a single sortie on 12 May 1942 , destroying two Junkers Ju 52 cargo planes and two escorting Bf 110s from a German air transport convoy operating between Crete and North Africa . He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross ( DFC ) for this action , gazetted on 2 October . The citation praised his " masterly airmanship as a fighter pilot " and his " great courage and devotion to duty " . Shortly after claiming a victory over a Messerschmitt Bf 109 on 22 May , Waddy was posted to another RAF unit , No . 260 Squadron , flying Kittyhawks . He accounted for two enemy aircraft in June , before being assigned to No . 4 Squadron , South African Air Force , with which he destroyed a Bf 109 in September . In October , following the award of his DFC , Waddy began flying Spitfire Vs in No . 92 Squadron RAF . He claimed a further three victories with his latest unit before being posted back to Australia on 19 November 1942 . His final tally of fifteen - and - a - half victories made him one of the most successful Allied fighter pilots in the Desert War , and second only to Caldwell among the RAAF contingent . South West Pacific . In February 1943 , Waddy took charge of the Spitfire Squadron of No . 2 Operational Training Unit ( No . 2 OTU ) , based at Mildura , Victoria . He was quoted in " The Canberra Times " that April offering his message of congratulation to the RAF on the 25th anniversary of its foundation : " You should not have many more birthdays before ' Jerry ' and the Jap s are shot clean out of the skies . Here ' s hoping . " Fellow aces and Desert War veterans Clive Caldwell , Wilf Arthur and Bobby Gibbes were also instructors at No . OTU prior to their combat postings in the South West Pacific ; in December 1943 , Caldwell and Waddy nearly collided when they crossed paths during an aerobatics display at No . 5 Service Flying Training School in Uranquinty , New South Wales . Waddy undertook a staff course the following year , and was promoted to squadron leader . He was posted to Noemfoor in the Dutch East Indies in September 1944 to command No . 80 Squadron ; his unit was part of No . 78 ( Fighter ) Wing of the Australian First Tactical Air Force ( No . 1 TAF ) , led by Air Commodore Harry Cobby . Operating Kittyhawks , No . 80 Squadron undertook dive bombing and strafing missions against Japanese targets , but saw little air combat . In April 1945 , Waddy joined Caldwell , Arthur , Gibbes and four other senior pilots of No . 1 TAF in an action that became known as the " Morotai Mutiny " . The eight attempted to resign their commissions in protest at the relegation of the RAAF ' s fighter squadrons to apparently worthless ground attack missions . Earlier that month , Waddy had asked his intelligence officer to produce a " profit and loss statement " for No . 80 Squadron , covering the period 1 October 1944 to 31 March 1945 , in order to " bring out the fact that the expenditure by the squadron was not compensated for by the achievements of the Squadron " . In that time , Waddy had lost eleven pilots with the unit , including seven to enemy action . Arthur had produced a similar " balance sheet " for No . 81 Wing . Both had become frustrated with the lack of attention paid by superior officers to their concerns regarding the usefulness of No . 1 TAF operations . At the subsequent inquiry into events on Morotai , Justice John Vincent Barry cleared the pilots of fault over the incident , finding their motives in tendering their resignations to be sincere . Waddy continued to lead No . 80 Squadron until handing over command on 1 June 1945 . For his service in the Pacific , he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the US Air Medal , the former promulgated on 25 June 1946 and the latter on 1 July 1948 . Post - war career . RAAF reservist and businessman . With the end of the Pacific War , Waddy was discharged from the Permanent Air Force ( PAF ) as an acting wing commander in September 1945 . He joined the Rose Bay branch of the Liberal Party , and accepted a commission in the RAAF Reserve , also known as the Citizen Air Force ( CAF ) . He also worked as a sales executive in the import - export firm of Falkiner , Caldwell Pty Ltd , run by Clive Caldwell and businessman George Falkiner . Promoted group captain , Waddy led the CAF from 1950 through 1954 , becoming its first member to take a seat on the Air Board , the RAAF ' s controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers and which was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff . During his tenure , CAF squadrons continued to operate aircraft and were expected to act as home defence in the absence of PAF forces serving overseas , roles they would lose by the end of the 1950s . Retiring from the CAF in 1954 , Waddy established his own real estate and travel agency , John L . Waddy Pty Ltd , and served as Honorary Aide - de - camp to the Queen until 1957 . He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1955 New Year Honours . The Australian delegate to the World Veterans ' Federation from 1956 to 1963 , he was President of the New South Wales Division of the Australian Flying Corps and Royal Australian Air Force Association throughout the 1950s , becoming an honorary life member in 1958 . In October 1956 , he joined former Chiefs of the Air Staff Air Marshals Sir Richard Williams and Sir George Jones in calling for greater investment in the local aircraft industry , warning that unless prompt action was taken the situation would deteriorate to the same level as before World War II . State parliamentarian . After an unsuccessful bid to become Lord Mayor of Sydney that saw him defeated by the Labor Party ' s Pat Hills , Waddy was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Liberal member for the newly created seat of Kirribilli , on Sydney ' s North Shore , in March 1962 . He sold his interest in John L . Waddy Pty Ltd the same year . Appointed Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Education in 1967 , he was an Assistant Minister from February 1969 until March 1971 , when he became a Minister of the Crown in charge of Child Welfare and Social Welfare in Premier Robert Askin ' s cabinet , succeeding Frederick Hewitt . His portfolio included responsibility for Aboriginal affairs ; in 1972 he founded the Aboriginal Lands Trust , staffed by a council of nine elected Indigenous Australians , to assume freehold title of former government reserves in New South Wales as a precursor to granting land rights . Waddy ' s position was changed to Minister for Youth and Community Services in January 1973 . In September he piloted a bill to reorganise the Ministries of Child Welfare and Social Welfare as the Department of Youth and Community Services ; the move was designed to " revitalise " and re - focus welfare services , and to remove " overtones of charity and paternalism " inherent in the earlier titles . Waddy was succeeded by Dick Healey on 3 December 1973 , and took over as Minister for Health from Harry Jago . On 3 January 1975 , he was appointed Minister for Police and Minister for Services under new Premier Tom Lewis , serving until 23 January the following year . In this portfolio he sponsored an amendment to the Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Bill , including provisions to close polling booths at 6 pm rather than 8 pm to expedite the reporting of results , and to change the term " Christian name " to " Given name " on candidate nominations to reflect changing community attitudes . He also put through a bill to hold a referendum on whether to make daylight saving a permanent fixture in New South Wales , following trials that had commenced in 1971 . Described by one of his parliamentary colleagues as a " mixture of " bon vivant " and conservatism " , Waddy was also known for an occasionally quick temper ; his staff were said to " start making motions as though they were bombing and strafing the enemy " when their boss got " wound up " . Charles Cutler , Deputy Premier from 1965 to 1975 , reflecting on the bond between ex - servicemen in the political arena , recalled Waddy as " a great bloke , but inclined to be a bit pompous when speaking in the house . . . " , while John Booth found him to have an " old - fashioned sense of service to the community " . Waddy was named a Freeman of the City of London in 1972 , and Australian Father of the Year in 1973 . Having held his state seat in Kirribilli for fourteen years and four re - election campaigns — in 1965 , 1968 , 1971 and 1973 — he was denied preselection by the Liberal Party for the 1976 contest . He resigned from the party and stood as an Independent , but was defeated by future Liberal leader Bruce McDonald . His parliamentary career was over but , in the words of a later Deputy Premier , Ian Armstrong , Waddy had " refused to retreat to political obscurity " , and " went out fighting " . He was permitted to continue to use the title " Honourable " on his retirement . After eleven years in power in New South Wales , the sitting Liberal government itself lost office in the 1976 poll , to Neville Wran ' s Labor Party . Later life . Waddy maintained his interest in aviation during and after his political career . He flew a Beechcraft King Air twin - engined turboprop in the 1969 England - to - Australia Air Race , taking second prize in the New South Wales Government division . As Minister for Child Welfare and Social Welfare with responsibility for Aboriginal affairs in 1971 , he piloted his own light plane on three of the longest legs of his tour of government reserves in rural New South Wales . Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Australian and British Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators in 1977 – 78 , he was an honorary member of the American Fighter Aces Association , and became director of a private airline , Aquatic Airways , in 1979 . He also raised cattle on his farm near Goulburn , New South Wales . Following several bouts of serious illness in his later years , John Waddy died on 11 September 1987 , at the age of seventy . He was survived by his wife and three children , and given a funeral at St . Andrew ' s Cathedral , Sydney . His pallbearers included Clive Caldwell and Tom Lewis . Waddy ' s son Lloyd served in the RAAF Reserve from 1979 to 1995 , and was appointed Queen ' s Counsel in 1988 and later a Justice of the Family Court of Australia . He was also a co - founder and National Convenor of Australians for Constitutional Monarchy . Waddy ' s widow Ve died in 2006 , at the age of ninety - six .