John Lloyd Waddy OBE (1916 - 1987)

Born 10 Dec 1916 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Ancestors

Husband of Vera Nellie May (Dengate) Waddy — married 21 Jul 1939 in Sydney Nsw Australia

Died 11 Sep 1987 at age 70 in Kingsdale, New South Wales, Australia

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Biography

Birth and Origins

The Honourable John Lloyd Waddy was born 10 Dec 1916, son of first-class cricketer Edgar Lloyd Waddy and his wife Lottchen Sara (unknown), and great-grandson of General Sir Richard Waddy, KCB.^{[1] [2]}

Education

He was educated at King's School, Parramatta^[1]

Marriage and Family

He married Vera Nellie May (Ve) Dengate on 21 July 1938^[1]

They had a son, Lloyd, and two daughters, Denise and Rosalind. 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^[1]

Occupation

He was a World War II Ace pilot, head of CAF, in real estate, and a state parliamentarian.

After school, John joined his father, Edgar's, real estate firm of E.L. Waddy & Son in Rose Bay^[1]

After Word War II, 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.^[1]

He lead the Citizen Air Force (CAF) from 1950 through 1954.^[1]

On leaving the CAF in 1954, Waddy established his own real estate and travel agency, John L. Waddy Pty Ltd, He sold his interest in John L. Waddy Pty Ltd in 1962, on entering parliament.^[1]

He served as Honorary Aide-de-camp to the Queen until 1957 and 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^[1]

After an unsuccessful bid to become Lord Mayor of Sydney, in Mar 1962, he 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.

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.

He became Minister for Youth and Community Services in January 1973, 3and in 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.

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.^[1]

See also NSW Legislative Assembly^[2]

World War II

Training

He enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in late 1940, learning to fly under the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) in Southern 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, and Richard trained in Canada with EATS during the war before 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^[1]

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.[4] He was befriended and mentored by the RAAF's top-scoring ace, Clive "Killer" Caldwell, who became godfather to Waddy's daughter.

Waddy was Promoted flying officer. 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 Kittyhawksand was then assigned to No. 4 Squadron, South African Air Force, with which he destroyed a Bf 109 in September. In October, Waddy flew Spitfire Vs in No. 92 Squadron RAF. By the time he was 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.^[1]

The Pacific

In February 1943, Waddy took charge of the Spitfire Squadron of No. 2 Operational Training Unit (No. 2 OTU), based at Mildura, Victoria. Fellow aces and Desert War veterans Clive Caldwell, Wilf Arthur and Bobby Gibbes were also instructors at No. OTU before 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. 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.^[1]

He was discharged Sept 1945 and accepted a commission in the RAAF Reserve, known as the Citizen Air Force (CAF). He was promoted group captain and led the CAF from 1950 to 1954, becoming its first member to take a seat on the Air Board, the RAAF's controlling body. During his tenure, CAF squadrons continued to operate aircraft and were expected to act as home defence in the absence of PAF units serving overseas up until the end of the 1950s. He retired from the CAF in 1954^[1]

Death

He died on 11 Sept 1987,(Aged 70), Kingsdale via Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia^{[3] [2]} survived by his wife and three children. He was given a funeral at St Andrew's Cathedral, Sydney. His pallbearers included Clive Caldwell and Tom Lewis. His widow Ve died in 2006, at the age of ninety-six.^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14} John Lloyd Waddy, Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lloyd_Waddy
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} The Hon. John Lloyd WADDY, O.B.E.,D.F.C (1916 - 1987), NSW LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY, https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/members/Pages/member-details.aspx?pk=1756
3. ↑ New South Wales Registry of BDM, Deaths, 20792/1987 , parents Edgar Lloyd Waddy and Lottchen Sara

• Family history
• "Australia, Marriage Index, 1788-1950"; Ancestry.com [database on-line]; Vera Nellie May Dengate and John Lloyd Waddy, 1939; Sydney, New South Wales.