Air Vice-Marshal Stanley James Goble, CBE, DSO, DSC (21 August 1891 – 24 July 1948) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served three terms as Chief of the Air Staff, alternating with Wing Commander (later Air Marshal Sir) Richard Williams. Goble came to national attention in 1924 when he and fellow RAAF pilot Ivor McIntyre became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air, journeying in a single-engined floatplane.
During World War I, Goble flew fighters on the Western Front with the British Royal Naval Air Service. He became an ace with ten victories, commanded No. 5 Squadron (later No. 205 Squadron RAF), and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Cross. Returning to Australia, Goble assisted in the formation of the RAAF as an independent branch of the Australian armed forces. On an exchange posting to Britain in the 1930s, he led No. 2 (Bomber) Group RAF, and was promoted to air vice-marshal in 1937.
As Chief of the Air Staff at the onset of World War II, Goble clashed with the federal government over implementation of the Empire Air Training Scheme, which he believed would be detrimental to the defence of Australia. He stepped down as leader of the RAAF in early 1940, and spent the rest of the war in Ottawa as Air Liaison Officer to Canada. Goble died in 1948 at the age of fifty-six, two years after retiring from the military.
Early career Born in Croydon, Victoria, Stanley James (Jimmy) Goble was one of four sons to an Australian father, George, and an English mother, Ann.McCarthy, "Goble, Stanley James (1891–1948)"Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 39–41 He apparently received little schooling, and began his working life as a clerk with the Victorian Railways when he was sixteen. By twenty-three he was, like his father, a stationmaster,Stephens, Australia's Air Chiefs, p. 25 the youngest appointed in the department, and a footballer with Brunswick in the Victorian Football Association.
Goble was prevented from joining the Australian Imperial Force at the beginning of World War I after failing the stringent medical criteria; he wrote later that "only applicants of the finest physiques were considered suitable for the first contingent of Australian troops".Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 10 With his three brothers already on active service, he decided to travel to England at his own expense and enlist in the British armed forces.
World War I Goble was accepted for flying training with the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) in July 1915. After graduating as a flight sub-lieutenant on 20 October 1915, he became a test pilot and undertook anti-submarine patrols out of Dover. Goble commenced operations with only three hours' solo flying experience. Towards the end of the year he was posted across the Channel to Dunkirk, flying Caudron reconnaissance-bombers and Sopwith Pup fighters.
Goble was a founding member of No. 8 Squadron RNAS in 1916, during the latter part of the Battle of the Somme, where he flew both Pups and Nieuport fighters. He earned the Distinguished Service Cross for his actions on 24 September 1916, when he engaged two enemy fighters near Ghistelles in West Flanders, "and brought one of them down on fire in a spiral nose-dive", according to the citation in The London Gazette. This victory was the first confirmed "kill" achieved by an Allied pilot flying the Pup.Franks, Sopwith Pup Aces of World War I, p. 8 Goble was promoted to flight lieutenant on 1 October, and won the French Croix de Guerre later that month.Dennis et al., The Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, p. 270
On 17 February 1917, Goble was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his "conspicuous bravery and skill" in three separate actions while operating with No. 8 Squadron: on 7 November 1916 when he forced a hostile fighter down in a field, where it crashed attempting to land; on 27 November when he engaged four enemy aircraft, destroying one; and on 4 December when, in repeated combats while escorting Allied bombers, he helped drive off attacking fighters and shot down one of them. The same month that he was awarded the DSO, Goble was posted to No. 5 Squadron RNAS at Petite-Synthe near the Franco-Belgian border, flying Airco DH.4 two-seat light bombers.
Goble was promoted twice in 1917, to flight commander in June, then squadron commander in December. He led No. 5 Squadron for the latter part of the year and into 1918.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 7 Cutlack, The Australian Flying Corps, p. xxvi His unit supported the British Fifth Army as it bore the brunt of the German spring offensive, and he had to evacuate his airfield when it was shelled by advancing enemy artillery. Relocating twice to other landing grounds, he kept his squadron on the attack, and was subsequently recognised by a commendation circulated to all RNAS combat units.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 28–29 When the RNAS merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps on 1 April 1918, Goble became a major in the newly formed Royal Air Force. Twice mentioned in despatches, he finished the war an ace, with ten victories.Stevens, The Royal Australian Navy, p. 49Franks, Sopwith Pup Aces of World War 1, p. 86Newton, Australian Air Aces, pp. 36, 60 Although forced to crash land on two occasions, he had avoided any injury during his active service.
Inter-war years
Establishment of the Royal Australian Air Force
Goble returned to Australia on HT Gaika in November 1918. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 1919 New Year Honours, and made an acting lieutenant colonel in May that year. He received a permanent commission as a squadron leader and honorary wing commander in the RAF on 1 August 1919, and was seconded to the Royal Australian Navy.
When a temporary Air Board was set up to examine the feasibility of an Australian Air Force (AAF), Goble was assigned as a Navy representative, and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams, an Australian Flying Corps veteran of World War I, acted as an Army spokesman. The permanent Australian Air Board was established on 9 November 1920, and recommended creation of the AAF as an independent branch of the armed services.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 26–31 The AAF came into being on 31 March 1921—the 'Royal' prefix being granted five months later—and Goble resigned his commission in the RAF the same day to transfer to the new service as a wing commander.
The Navy had nominated Goble as First Air Member (later Chief of the Air Staff), but Williams took the post and Goble became Second Air Member and Director of Personnel and Training.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 15–16 Williams and Goble would serve as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) three times each between 1922 and 1940. One motive suggested for the rotation was a ploy by Army and Navy interests to limit Williams's autonomy.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 20–23 Instead, according to RAAF historian Alan Stephens, the arrangement "almost inevitably fostered an unproductive rivalry" between the two officers, which was "exacerbated by the personality differences between the pedantic, autocratic Williams and the cheerful, easy-going Goble".Stephens, High Fliers, p. 33 Although in a legal sense the Air Board led the RAAF rather than the CAS alone, Williams dominated the board to such an extent that Goble would later complain that his colleague appeared to consider the Air Force his personal command.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 52–53
Chief of the Air Staff The rivalry between Goble and Williams was such that it was later alleged that government practice was to ensure that they were never in the country at the same time.Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 29–33 In October 1921, Goble was posted to Britain for a naval co-operation course; his place on the Air Board was taken by Squadron Leader Bill Anderson.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 37 Goble married Kathleen Wodehouse in London on Anzac Day, 1922, and returned to Australia later that year. His first term as CAS began when Williams left the country in December 1922 for study in England. Goble developed a plan to establish a small seaplane base at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney, but Williams cancelled this shortly after he returned to Australia in February 1925 to resume the position of CAS.Roylance, Air Base Richmond, p. 19 Goble's suggestion of a separate Fleet Air Arm fostered suspicions that he was too closely aligned with naval interests. He departed for England to undertake study at the British Army Staff College in Camberley and RAF Staff College, Andover, as Williams had done two years before. Goble also served as Air Liaison Officer with the Australian High Commission in London from May 1926 to September 1927. He was promoted to group captain on 1 April 1928.
Raised to temporary air commodore, Goble took over as CAS for the second time between December 1932 and June 1934, while Williams attended the Imperial Defence College in London. On secondment to the RAF from 1935 to 1937, Goble was attached to the British Air Ministry as Deputy Director of Air Operations. In this capacity he attended a conference in 1936 to examine a Commonwealth-wide air training plan, a concept that would be revived in World War II as the Empire Air Training Scheme.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 79 Continuing his exchange posting, on 1 September Goble took over as Air Officer Commanding No. 2 (Bomber) Group, based in Hampshire. The group comprised fifteen squadrons, putting him in charge of a force stronger than the entire RAAF.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 93 On 28 February 1937, Goble was raised to temporary air vice-marshal. He succeeded Williams as Chief of the Air Staff for the last time in February 1939, when the latter was dismissed from his position in the aftermath of the Ellington Report criticising the standards of training and air safety observed by the RAAF.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 66–67, 113–116Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 347–348 When he replaced Williams, Goble was Air Member for Personnel and might therefore have been considered more closely responsible for such standards; he maintained that Williams had personally overseen the service's air training since 1934.
Circumnavigation of Australia
The young air force was a small, close-knit organisation comparable to a flying club, although several pioneering flights were undertaken by its members.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 36–37 One of the most notable was made by Goble and Flying Officer (later Flight Lieutenant) Ivor McIntyre in 1924, when they became the first men to circumnavigate Australia by air, in a single-engined Fairey IIID floatplane. The English-born McIntyre, who was lead pilot while Goble acted as commander and navigator, was also a World War I veteran of the Royal Naval Air Service. The purpose of the flight was to survey the northern coastline of Australia for defence planning, and to test the capabilities of the Fairey IIID.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 25