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John Lloyd Waddy, OBE, DFC, (1916-1987)

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 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, 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, 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.

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, 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, 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.

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 Japs 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.