Henry Wrigley Air Vice Marshal Henry Neilson Wrigley CBE , DFC , AFC ( 21 April 1892 – 14 September 1987 ) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) . A pioneering flyer and aviation scholar , he piloted the first trans - Australia flight from Melbourne to Darwin in 1919 , and afterwards laid the groundwork for the RAAF ' s air power doctrine . During World War I , Wrigley joined the Australian Flying Corps and saw combat with No . 3 Squadron on the Western Front , earning the Distinguished Flying Cross ; he later commanded the unit and published a history of its wartime exploits . He was awarded the Air Force Cross for his 1919 cross - country flight . Wrigley was a founding member of the RAAF in 1921 and held a variety of staff posts in the ensuing years . In 1936 , he was promoted to group captain and took command of RAAF Station Laverton . Raised to air commodore soon after the outbreak of World War II , he became Air Member for Personnel in November 1940 . One of his tasks was organising the newly established Women ' s Auxiliary Australian Air Force and selecting its director , Clare Stevenson , in 1941 . He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire the same year . Wrigley served as Air Officer Commanding RAAF Overseas Headquarters , London , from September 1942 until his retirement from the military in June 1946 . He died in 1987 at the age of ninety - five . His writings on air power were collected and published posthumously as " The Decisive Factor " in 1990 . Early life and World War I . Wrigley was born on 21 April 1892 in Collingwood , a suburb of Melbourne , to Henry and Beatrice Wrigley . He was educated at Richmond Central School and at Melbourne High School , where he joined the cadets . Studying at the University of Melbourne , he became a state school teacher and a member of the militia prior to the outbreak of World War I . He joined the Australian Flying Corps ( AFC ) on 5 October 1916 . Wrigley trained as a pilot under the tutelage of Lieutenant Eric Harrison at Central Flying School in Point Cook , Victoria , before departing Melbourne on 25 October aboard a troopship bound for Europe . After further training in England , Wrigley was posted to France and flew on the Western Front with No . 3 Squadron AFC ( also known until 1918 as No . 69 Squadron , Royal Flying Corps ) . Operating Royal Aircraft Factory R . E . 8 s , the unit was engaged in reconnaissance , artillery - spotting and ground support duties . Having been promoted to captain , Wrigley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his " exceptional devotion to duty " , in particular his persistence in pressing home an attack against enemy infantry on 29 October 1918 in the face of " intense machine gun and rifle fire " ; the honour was promulgated in the " London Gazette " on 3 June 1919 . Wrigley later observed that most wartime aircraft were " impossible to fight in " , and that senior officers were " too occupied with coaxing aeroplanes into the air and teaching pilots to bring them down again without breaking their necks " to consider the wider implications of air power . Between the wars . Wrigley became No . 3 Squadron ' s commanding officer in January 1919 , and returned to Australia on 6 May . Later that year he took part in the first transcontinental flight across Australia , from Melbourne to Darwin , to coincide with the first England to Australia flight . Accompanied by his mechanic and former schoolmate , Sergeant Arthur " Spud " Murphy , Wrigley departed Point Cook on 16 November and arrived in Port Darwin on 12 December , having travelled some in forty - seven flying hours . The men flew in a single - engined Royal Aircraft Factory B . E . 2 , with no radio , over unmapped and often hazardous terrain , and surveyed seventeen potential landing fields along the way . Wrigley considered the choice of Murphy as his cohort " a particularly happy one " but called the aircraft they were assigned " an obsolete type , even for training purposes " , while conceding that " it was structurally sound and airworthy . " In recognition of their achievement the men were each awarded the Air Force Cross , gazetted on 12 July 1920 . Such was the perceived danger of the expedition that while making preparations for the flight back they received a telegram from the Defence Department ordering them to dismantle the B . E . 2 and return with it by ship . On 1 January 1920 , Wrigley transferred to the Australian Air Corps ( AAC ) , a temporary organisation formed by the Army following disbandment of the wartime AFC . He was appointed adjutant at Central Flying School the following month . In 1921 , Wrigley joined the newly established Royal Australian Air Force ( RAAF ) as a flight lieutenant . Popularly known as " Wrig " , he was one of the original twenty - one officers on the Air Force ' s strength at its formation that March . For the next seven years he held staff posts at RAAF Headquarters , Melbourne , beginning with the position of staff officer to the Director of Personnel and Training . On 5 July 1922 , Wrigley married Marjorie Rees ; the couple had a son and a daughter . The same month , he replaced Flight Lieutenant Frank McNamara as Staff Officer ( Operations and Intelligence ) . He served as RAAF Training Officer from March 1923 to April 1925 — during which time he was promoted to squadron leader — before being appointed Director of Organisation and Staff Duties . In November 1927 , he took part in an attempt to make the first night flight from Sydney to Melbourne . Taking off from RAAF Station Richmond in an Airco DH . 9 , Wrigley and his co - pilot were in the air for six hours and covered when a broken fuel line forced them to land for repairs ; they completed the journey the following day . Wrigley travelled to England in 1928 to attend RAF Staff College , Andover , becoming one of the first RAAF officers to complete the course . Remaining in England , he was appointed Australian Air Liaison Officer to the Air Ministry in 1929 . That October , he initiated correspondence with the British Air Council to discuss a proposal for the RAAF to adopt as its own the Royal Air Force ' s motto " Per Ardua Ad Astra " ; informal approval was granted by letter to Wrigley in March 1930 . Returning to Australia , he became Director of Operations and Intelligence at RAAF Headquarters in October 1930 , and Director of Organisation and Staff Duties in December 1931 . He was promoted to wing commander in December 1932 . In 1935 he published his history of No . 3 Squadron , " The Battle Below " , which was considered an authoritative treatment on the subject of army cooperation . He was promoted group captain in July 1936 , and that October took over as commanding officer of RAAF Station Laverton , Victoria , from Group Captain McNamara . Wrigley handed over the station ' s command to Group Captain Adrian Cole in February 1939 . In May 1939 , Wrigley served as the senior expert assessor on the panel of an inquiry into three recent accidents involving Avro Anson s ; the full report handed down in October found that training on the type followed the syllabus , but that pilots needed more practical experience in dealing with in - flight incidents , as human error was the likely explanation for at least one crash . World War II . As part of the RAAF ' s reorganisation following the outbreak of World War II , No . 1 Group was formed under Wrigley ' s command in Melbourne on 20 November 1939 , to oversee the operations of air bases and units in Victoria , South Australia and Tasmania . Promoted air commodore , in 1940 Wrigley served as Air Officer Commanding ( AOC ) Southern Area , the successor organisation to No . 1 Group , before taking up the position of Air Member for Personnel ( AMP ) in November that year . He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1941 New Year Honours . As AMP , Wrigley ' s responsibilities included organising the Women ' s Auxiliary Australian Air Force ( WAAAF ) , established on 25 March 1941 as the first uniformed women ' s branch of an armed service in the country . He believed that recruiting servicewomen was essential to augment the large number of ground staff required to support the war effort , and considered that while such an organisation should be constitutionally separate from the RAAF , its members should be closely integrated within the current force structure . The Chief of the Air Staff ( CAS ) was at this time an RAF officer , Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett , who hoped to see his daughter Sybil - Jean , a veteran of Britain ' s Women ' s Auxiliary Air Force , take charge of the WAAAF . Wrigley successfully argued against this , telling Burnett that there had already been " enough public outcry " over a non - Australian being named CAS , and there would be " a further public outcry " if anyone other than an Australian was appointed WAAAF Director . On 21 May , he selected Berlei executive Clare Stevenson as WAAAF Director , passing over temporary appointee Mary Bell , wife of a serving RAAF group captain . Wrigley chose Stevenson on the basis of her management background and because she was not a " socialite " . Bell , who was offered the position of Deputy Director , chose to resign from the WAAAF on learning of Stevenson ' s appointment , but Wrigley later convinced her to rejoin . Meanwhile , Wrigley played a leading part in the development of the Air Training Corps , formed in April 1941 to facilitate basic training for youths aged sixteen to eighteen who hoped to become RAAF aircrew . Wrigley ' s promotion to acting air vice marshal was announced in May 1941 , making him only the third member of the RAAF — after Richard Williams and Stanley Goble — to attain this rank . In September 1942 , he was posted to London to take over from Frank McNamara as AOC RAAF Overseas Headquarters . For a time , however , he was involved in a tug - of - war with Air Marshal Williams over just who was in charge . Williams , who commanded Overseas Headquarters at its inception in December 1941 , with McNamara as his deputy , had subsequently been appointed as the RAAF ' s representative to Washington , DC , leaving McNamara in charge of the London office until Wrigley arrived . The Minister for Air , Arthur Drakeford , was in favour of Williams commanding the RAAF offices in both the US and UK while Wrigley acted for him in London , despite Wrigley having been appointed AOC . Wrigley ' s diary recorded that when Williams returned to London in October 1942 to attend a conference , he began " throwing his weight around " and " intriguing to have himself made AOC , and possibly AOC in C [ Air Officer Commanding - in - Chief ] of all RAAF units and personnel outside Australia and the SW Pacific " . Although Williams departed England in January 1943 , the matter was only fully laid to rest in mid - 1943 , when the CAS , Air Vice Marshal George Jones , advised Williams that it was impractical for him to command offices in both Washington and London . As AOC RAAF Overseas Headquarters , Wrigley was responsible for looking after the interests of RAAF aircrew stationed in the European and the Middle Eastern theatres , liaising between the British Air Ministry and the Australian government regarding technical developments and information on the war in the Pacific , and negotiating revisions to the terms of the Empire Air Training Scheme ( EATS ) . The role had little influence on the deployment of Australian personnel for the air offensive in Europe , who were subject to RAF policy and strategy even when they belonged to RAAF squadrons . According to the official history of Australia in the war , Wrigley and his predecessors could hardly do more than " retard the centrifugal forces affecting Australian disposition , and repair the worst administrative difficulties arising from wide dispersion " . Nevertheless , Wrigley became a familiar and popular figure for the thousands of Australian airmen who passed through London during the war , and was known to take off his jacket and tend bar at Codgers , the headquarters ' watering hole . An EATS graduate later remarked that " under Air Vice - Marshal Wrigley we got tremendous service . . . I was in North Africa , Italy , Sardinia , Corsica and then back in the United Kingdom . We got our mail , we got our comforts . . . Not only that , when some cow went and pinched 100 quid from me when I was on leave in London , the next day , with a shaking hand , I was able to sign for another 100 quid and have a good time . " In March 1943 , following negotiations that had begun the previous year , Wrigley signed a revision of EATS that finally recognised Australia ' s " national aspirations " regarding concentration of her airmen in RAAF squadrons as opposed to them being scattered throughout RAF units , reasonable prospects of promotion and rotation for staff , and pay and other conditions of service confirmed as being per RAAF stipulations . The official history contended , however , " for the most part Australia was still left chasing a dream rather than a reality " , as many clauses in the agreement were " subject to operational exigencies " and to be adhered to only " as far as possible " . Wrigley toured the Mediterranean in September , visiting No . 459 Squadron in the Middle East , and travelling to Sicily to interview ground staff of No . 450 Squadron over their grievances concerning lack of promotion and leave ; his presence was considered to have defused this situation . The end of hostilities in Europe on 7 May 1945 raised a major logistical challenge for Wrigley as the senior officer responsible for some 13 , 500 RAAF personnel spread across Britain , the Mediterranean , and the continent , only a minority of whom were in nominally Australian squadrons , the bulk serving with RAF establishments . " The task was energetically met " , however , according to the official history ; fewer than 1 , 000 RAAF personnel remained in RAF units by 1 September , although repatriation continued through into the new year . Retirement and legacy . Wrigley was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946 , along with a number of other senior commanders and veterans of World War I , ostensibly to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers . Keenly disappointed with the decision , Wrigley was officially discharged on 6 June . He found it difficult to secure civilian employment because , " by the time I got back , all the worthwhile jobs round Australia had been snapped up by people , not only air force people but other people on the spot " . After an unsuccessful attempt to run his own retail business , he " eventually earned a living by taking on some administrative jobs which carried on for a few years " . Wrigley was made an honorary air vice marshal in July 1956 . In 1966 he became executive officer of the Victorian Overseas Foundation , and later a trustee . He published " Aircraft and Economic Development : The RAAF Contribution " through the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1969 . In March 1971 , he was among a select group of surviving founding members of the RAAF who attended a celebratory dinner at the Hotel Canberra to mark the service ' s Golden Jubilee ; his fellow guests included Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams , Air Vice Marshal Bill Anderson , Air Commodore Hippolyte De La Rue , and Wing Commander Sir Lawrence Wackett . After the death of his first wife , Marjorie , Wrigley married Zenda Edwards on 5 January 1972 . In December 1979 , he was the guest of honour at celebrations marking sixty years of flying at Darwin ; the RAAF flew him from Point Cook to Darwin to commemorate his historic 1919 flight with Arthur Murphy . Wrigley wrote a history of the Victorian branch of the United Services Institution in 1980 . Aged ninety - five , he died in Melbourne on 14 September 1987 . Throughout his life , Wrigley was an " inveterate note - taker " who compiled extensive documentation concerning the theory and practice of air power , on which he lectured among colleagues in the RAAF during the 1920s . The concepts that he propagated included air superiority , the need for an air force to be separate from the other branches of the armed services , control of the air as a means of carrying out offensive strikes , and the substitution of aerial forces for ground troops . While arguing for the independence of the air arm , Wrigley was quick to dispel any notion that it would simply " arrive from God knows where , drop [ its ] bombs God knows where , and go off again God knows where " ; rather it should act in concert with the army and navy in furtherance of government policy . He is thus credited with laying the foundations for the RAAF ' s modern air power doctrine , which would eventually be codified as the " Air Power Manual " in 1990 . Wrigley ' s widow bequeathed twenty volumes of his writings , maps and photographs to the RAAF Museum at Point Cook after his death ; they were edited and published by Air Commodore Brendan O ' Loghlin and Wing Commander Alan Stephens in 1990 as " The Decisive Factor : Air Power Doctrine by Air Vice - Marshal H . N . Wrigley " . In 1996 , Wrigley ' s former residence as commanding officer of RAAF Station Laverton prior to World War II was christened Wrigley House in his honour . His name is also borne by Henry Wrigley Drive , approaching Darwin International Airport . In March 2010 the Chief of Air Force , Air Marshal Mark Binskin , established the AVM H . N . Wrigley Prize for air power analysis , as part of the annual Chief of Air Force Essay Competition .