Air Vice Marshal Francis Hubert (Frank) McNamara, was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth forces. Serving with the Australian Flying Corps, he was honoured for his actions on 20 March 1917, when he rescued a fellow pilot who had been forced down behind enemy lines. McNamara was the first Australian aviator—and the only one in World War I—to receive the Victoria Cross. He later became a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
Lieutenant McNamara at Point Cook, Victoria, 1916
Captain McNamara flying an Avro 504K over St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, c. 1919–20. He was later married in the cathedral.
Air Marshal Sir Peter Roy Maxwell Drummond, was an Australian-born senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He rose from private soldier in World War I to air marshal in World War II. Drummond enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914 and the following year saw service as a medical orderly during the Gallipoli campaign. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and became a fighter ace in the Middle Eastern theatre, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order and Bar. Transferring to the RAF on its formation in 1918, he remained in the British armed forces for the rest of his life.
Lieutenant Drummond (far right) with Captain Ross Macpherson Smith (far left), Major Lawrence Wackett (third left), and other officers of No. 1 Squadron AFC, c. 1916
Air Vice-Marshal Drummond (left) with British Minister of State of the Middle East Richard Casey (centre) and Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder (right) in May 1942
Unfinished sketch of Drummond by Cuthbert Orde, August 1945