Air Marshal Sir Valston Eldridge Hancock, (31 May 190729 September 1998) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff from 1961 to 1965. A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Hancock transferred from the Army to the RAAF in 1929 and qualified as a pilot. His administrative training at Duntroon saw him mainly occupy staff posts, including Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence at RAAF Headquarters from 1931 to 1935, and Director of Works and Buildings from 1937 to 1939. During the early years of World WarII, he commanded No.1 Bombing and Gunnery School, and held senior planning and administrative positions. He eventually saw combat in the Aitape–Wewak campaign of the Pacific War during 1945. Flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers, he led first No.100 Squadron, and later No.71 Wing. His actions earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After the war, Hancock became the inaugural commandant of RAAF College. His subsequent positions included Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1951 to 1953, Air Member for Personnel from 1953 to 1955, and Air Officer Commanding (AOC) No. 224 Group RAF in Malaya, responsible for all Commonwealth air forces in the region, from 1957 to 1959. Appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1958, he served as AOC RAAF Operational Command from 1959 to 1961, before being promoted to air marshal and commencing his term as Chief of the Air Staff. He was knighted in 1962. In his role as the Air Force's senior officer, Hancock initiated redevelopment of RAAF Base Learmonth in north Western Australia, as part of a chain of forward airfields for the defence of the continent. He also evaluated potential replacements for the RAAF's English Electric Canberra bomber, finding the American "TFX" (later the General Dynamics F-111) to be the most suitable for Australia's needs, though he did not recommend its immediate purchase due to its early stage of development. After retiring from the military in May 1965, Hancock co-founded the Australia Defence Association. He died in 1998, aged 91.

Early career

Valston Eldridge Hancock was born on 31May 1907 in Perth, Western Australia, and educated at Hale School in Wembley Downs.Air Marshals at Royal Australian Air Force. Retrieved 14 April 2011. He was the elder cousin of future mining magnate Lang Hancock.Commonwealth of Australia, "Parliamentary Debates", p. 9910 Val Hancock entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as a cadet on 18 February 1925. Rising to battalion sergeant-major as a senior cadet, Hancock graduated as a lieutenant on 12 December 1928, earning the Sword of Honour.Moore, Duntroon, pp. 457–459 His preferred career path in the military was engineering, and it was only when he found there was no vacancy in his corps of choice, and that he had instead been earmarked for the artillery, that he put his name forward for transfer to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).Dennis et al, Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, p. 254Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 196 On 1February 1929, Hancock was seconded to the RAAF as a temporary pilot officer. He undertook flying instruction at RAAF Point Cook, Victoria, and was promoted flying officer on 1 July 1930. In September 1931, Hancock's transfer to the RAAF was retroactively approved with effect from 1 February 1929.

Hancock's initial postings after qualifying as a pilot were to Nos.1 and 3Squadrons. It was common practice for Duntroon graduates to be given positions in the Air Force because of their training in administration, and Hancock spent most of the 1930s in a succession of posts at RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne. From 1931 to 1935, he served as Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence, with promotion to flight lieutenant on 1 July 1934. He married Joan Butler on 26May 1932; the couple had two sons and a daughter.Draper, Who's Who in Australia 1983, pp. 381–382 By 1935, Hancock had been appointed Staff Officer to the Chief of the Air Staff.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 154 In 1937 he was posted to Britain to attend the RAF Staff College, Andover. Like other Commonwealth air forces, the RAAF maintained close technological and educational ties with the Royal Air Force, and Hancock was one of thirty Australian officers to pass through Andover before the outbreak of World WarII.Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 81, 90–91 Returning to Australia in 1938, he became Director of Works and Buildings, commonly known as "Works and Bricks", at RAAF Headquarters, and was promoted to squadron leader on 1 March 1939.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 94–95

World War II

In March 1940, Hancock's Directorate of Works and Buildings was transferred from the office of the Chief of the Air Staff to the newly formed Organisation and Equipment Branch under Air Marshal Richard Williams. Considered a key part of the Air Force's expansion during the early part of the War, "Works and Bricks" quickly absorbed all staff with civil engineering and building experience in the RAAF active reserve. As Director, Hancock was responsible for surveying and developing a military aerodrome at Evans Head, near the Queensland and New South Wales border, that became home to No.1 Bombing and Gunnery School (No.1 BAGS). Promoted to temporary wing commander on 1 June, he held command of No.1 BAGS, operating Fairey Battle single-engined bombers, from August 1940 until November 1941.RAAF Historical Section, Units of the Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 9–10Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 238 He was promoted to acting group captain on 1 April 1941. Hancock was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) on 1January 1942. He relinquished his acting rank on 12 January, and became Assistant Director of Plans at Allied Air Forces Headquarters, South West Pacific Area that April.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 473 He was made Director of Plans at the Air Force's main operational formation, RAAF Command, when it was established in September.Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 588 In 1943–44, he served as Staff Officer Administration for Western Area Command, which maintained two bomber squadrons for anti-submarine patrols and two fighter squadrons to guard against possible attack on the mainland by Japanese carrier-borne aircraft.Odgers, Air War Against Japan, p. 141

Hancock finally gained a combat command in January 1945, when he took charge of No.100 Squadron, flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers during the Aitape-Wewak campaign in New Guinea.Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 337–342 That month, the unit attacked Japanese positions at Maprik, below the Prince Alexander Ranges, and Cape Moem, near Wewak. On 1April, Hancock took over No.71 Wing, which came under overall control of RAAF Northern Command and nominally comprised Nos.7, 8and 100 Beaufort Squadrons, as well as a flight of CAC Boomerang fighter-bombers from No.4 (Army Cooperation) Squadron.Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 342–348 It was soon augmented by two more Beaufort units, Nos.6 and 15 Squadrons. Providing close air support to Australian ground troops in the lead-up to the final assault on Wewak, the wing flew over 1,400 sorties and dropped more than 1,200 tons of bombs in May alone. By mid-year, Hancock's forces were acutely short of fuel and ordnance, to the extent that his squadrons took to arming their Beauforts with captured Japanese bombs. In July, enough supplies arrived to enable the wing to continue operating at normal strength.Long, The Final Campaigns, p. 360 No.71 Wing was active to the last day of the Pacific War, flying its final combat mission involving thirty Beauforts only hours before news of victory arrived on 15August 1945. Hancock's "distinguished flying on operations in Northern Command" earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross; the award was published in the London Gazette on 22February 1946.

Post-war career

Among a small coterie of wartime RAAF commanders considered suitable for future senior roles, Hancock retained his rank of group captain following the end of hostilities.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 24–25Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 238–239 As Director of Personnel Services during 1946, he was involved in restructuring the Air Force into a dramatically smaller peacetime service.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 254–255 He recalled it as a "twilight period" when "no-one wanted to know about us" and many good people were let go due to the government's parsimonious retention policies.Stephens, Power Plus Attitude, p. 116Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 11, 18–19 On 1 January 1947, Hancock was promoted to substantive group captain. Receiving a further promotion to temporary air commodore on 1 March, he was appointed inaugural commandant of the newly formed RAAF College, Point Cook, the Air Force's equivalent of Duntroon and the Royal Australian Naval College. He also drafted the institution's charter.Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 186 Departing in late 1949, he spent the following year in Britain, where he attended the Imperial Defence College, receiving a promotion to substantive air commodore on 1 February 1950. On his return to Australia in 1951, he was promoted to acting air vice-marshal and made Deputy Chief of the Air Staff on 21 June. He was raised to a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1953 New Years Honours. On 16 October that year, Hancock took over from Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin as Air Member for Personnel (AMP), and was promoted substantive air vice-marshal on 1 January 1954. As AMP, he occupied a seat on the Air Board, the service's controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers and which was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff.Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 499–500Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112 Completing his term on 3 January 1955, Hancock was posted to Britain as Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in London. He spent much of the latter half of 1955 and early 1956 laid low by a stomach ailment that was initially diagnosed as amoebic dysentery but later thought to be Malta fever or malaria.Department of Defence, Personal Correspondence, pp. 14–21