Colin Hannah

World War II

Promoted to flight lieutenant, Hannah was posted to Britain in July 1939 to undertake a Royal Air Force armaments training course, which he had barely begun when war was declared on 3 September. He completed the course, and returned to Australia in March 1940. After brief postings to No. 1 Armament School, Point Cook, and Station Headquarters Laverton, he was assigned to Air Force Headquarters, Melbourne, in May. He was made an acting squadron leader in September 1940 and became Deputy Director of Armament the next year. In April 1942, Hannah was promoted to temporary wing commander. He undertook a general reconnaissance course the following May.

In November 1943, Hannah was appointed commanding officer of No. 6 Squadron at Milne Bay, Papua, flying Bristol Beaufort light bombers. During a familiarisation flight he came under friendly fire from anti-aircraft guns on Kiriwina Island, but avoided serious injury. He was raised to temporary group captain in December, and assumed command of No. 71 Wing the following month. The Beauforts of No. 6 Squadron and No. 71 Wing took part in a series of major attacks on Rabaul, bombing and strafing airfields, infrastructure and shipping; this continued until February 1944, when the Japanese withdrew their aircraft from Rabaul. The same month, Hannah fell ill and had to be repatriated to Australia. After six weeks recuperation at Laverton, he returned to No. 6 Squadron, based on Goodenough Island. From March to August, the squadron was mainly involved in convoy escort and anti-submarine duties. In September 1944, Hannah was appointed senior air staff officer (SASO) at Headquarters Western Area Command, Perth. He took over control of the formation from Air Commodore Raymond Brownell in July 1945, following Brownell's departure to command No. 11 Group in the Dutch East Indies.

Post-war RAAF career

Rise to Chief of the Air staff

Hannah handed over command of Western Area in October 1946, and was posted to Britain. For the next two years, he undertook study at RAF Staff College, Andover, and served as SASO at RAAF Overseas Headquarters in London. Returning to Australia, in May 1949 he assumed command of RAAF Station Amberley, Queensland. From August 1950, he also held temporary command of the base's Avro Lincoln heavy bomber formation, No. 82 Wing. Promoted to substantive group captain in October 1950, Hannah was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 1951 New Year Honours, in particular for his "exceptional ability" as SASO at RAAF Overseas Headquarters. In September, he was made Director of Personnel Services; his position became Director-General of Personnel in July 1952. As aide-de-camp to Queen Elizabeth II, Hannah was heavily involved in planning the RAAF's part in the 1954 Royal Tour of Australia. He was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the Queen's Birthday Honours that June.

In 1955, Hannah attended the Imperial Defence College in London, and was promoted to air commodore. He was posted to Singapore as SASO, RAF Far East Air Force Headquarters, in January 1956, handling counter-insurgency operations during the Malayan Emergency. Hannah's "distinguished service" during the conflict was recognised with his appointment as a Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in June 1959. As Director-General of Plans and Policy from March 1959, he was responsible for commencing the Department of Air's relocation from Melbourne to Canberra. In December 1961, Hannah was appointed Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, receiving promotion to acting air vice marshal in May 1962; the rank was made substantive in January 1963. He was later described by his staff officer in this role as "brusque" and "impersonal" though not unsympathetic, his "uncommunicative" manner stemming from a preference to "do his own research, think out the substance of his project submissions, dictate to his stenographer, then amend to his own satisfaction", rather than delegate. Hannah served as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Operational Command (now Air Command) from February 1965 to December 1967, during which time the RAAF's fighter squadrons completed their conversion from the CAC Sabre to the supersonic Dassault Mirage III. His tenure also saw the deployment of the first Australian helicopters to Vietnam, eight UH-1 Iroquois of No. 9 Squadron that departed Sydney in May 1966. Hannah's next appointment was as AOC Support Command, responsible for training and maintenance in the Air Force. Throughout his career to this point he was noted for his energy and drive.

Chief of the Air staff

Hannah was promoted to air marshal on 1 January 1970, and succeeded Air Marshal Sir Alister Murdoch as Chief of the Air Staff. Murdoch had earlier recommended Hannah, known to be a strong advocate for Australian participation in the Vietnam War, for the position of Commander Australian Forces Vietnam when it came up for rotation at the end of 1969; the post went to an Army officer, and the Federal government ordered the withdrawal of the RAAF presence in Vietnam during Hannah's tour as CAS. In March 1970, the Minister for Defence, Malcolm Fraser, commissioned a review of naval air power. Hannah fundamentally disagreed with any suggestion that the Royal Australian Navy should operate land-based aircraft, claiming that he was arguing not from a partisan perspective but to ensure that Australia's limited defence resources were not spread across three services. Confidential RAAF papers from the time declared that its goal was always to "avoid giving the Navy the opportunity to establish a land-based air force". Two years later, Hannah responded favourably to a recommendation from the Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, Admiral Sir Victor Smith, to use the soon-to-be-delivered F-111 bomber for maritime support, among other roles.

In the 1971 New Year Honours, Hannah was raised to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE). His tour as CAS coincided with the RAAF's Golden Jubilee, celebrated in March and April that year. He personally organised a fly-past of two US Air Force F-111s at air shows marking the occasion, generating favourable coverage to counteract the poor publicity surrounding the type's long-delayed entry into Australian service. He was also involved in two controversial decisions the same year. Firstly, he was a member of the committee to choose an Air Force memorial to be located on Anzac Parade, Canberra. The selected design was an abstract sculpture that, according to official RAAF historian Alan Stephens, reflected "the selection panel's comprehensive failure to understand the nature of air force service". Secondly, Hannah commissioned a replacement for the Air Force's winter uniform, traditionally a shade "somewhere between royal and navy blue" that had been personally chosen by the RAAF's first CAS, Wing Commander (later Air Marshal Sir) Richard Williams, to distinguish it from the lighter Royal Air Force colour. Hannah publicly debuted the uniform that he approved, an all-purpose middle-blue suit, at a Point Cook graduation parade on 8 December 1971. It was the object of much adverse comment in the ensuing years; personnel complained of being mistaken for bus, train and postal employees. One of Hannah's successors as CAS, Air Marshal Errol McCormack, ordered that the uniform revert to Williams' original colour and style commencing in 2000.

Governor

Hannah's planned three-year term as Chief of the Air Staff was cut short by some ten months when he accepted an offer to serve as Governor of Queensland, becoming the first officer in the RAAF to receive a vice-regal appointment. The announcement was made in January 1972, and he took office on 21 March. He succeeded Sir Alan Mansfield. Hannah did not have a strong connection with Queensland at the time of his appointment, and had only lived in the state during his period as commander of RAAF Station Amberley between 1949 and 1951. He claimed not to have actively sought the governorship, and was criticised for failing to consult with senior colleagues before making his decision to retire early from his position as head of the Air Force. He was replaced as CAS by his deputy, Air Vice Marshal (later Air Marshal Sir) Charles Read.

Described when he took office as "a man with the flexibility of mind and ability to mix with people, so necessary for a Governor", Hannah was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) and a Knight and Deputy Prior of the Venerable Order of Saint John in September 1972. His term as Governor was relatively uneventful until 1975. In October that year, he created controversy at a Brisbane Chamber of Commerce luncheon by criticising the "fumbling ineptitude" of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam's Federal Labor government for placing Australia in "its present economic state". Vice-regal appointees in Australia are expected to remain neutral and above politics but Hannah declared that he would be "guilty of sheltering behind convention, of denying my heritage and failing in my regard for the people of Queensland" if he did not speak his mind. The incident occurred in the midst of a constitutional crisis and, according to military historian Chris Coulthard-Clark, was "widely seen as a blatant intervention in the national political arena". The Federal government responded by advising the Queen to revoke Hannah's dormant commission to serve in place of the Governor-General if required; at the time Hannah was the second in line to serve as Governor-General, after the Governor of New South Wales. Commenting on the episode twenty years later, former Governor-General Bill Hayden, himself from Queensland, spoke of "Whitlam's peremptory and justifiable dismissal of Queensland Governor Sir Colin Hannah". Hayden observed that, "Hannah's transgression was not so much that he suffered from an excessive notion of his own importance, which he did, but rather in the intemperate manner he assailed the national government at a public function in Brisbane. In doing that he soared dangerously above his natural level of pomposity."

Following his succession in November 1975, Liberal Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser attempted to have the dormant commission reinstated, but the Queen – following advice from the British government that cited Hannah's lack of impartiality – refused her assent. When Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen sought to extend the Governor's term, the British government again declined. Bjelke-Petersen sought to pursue the matter further, but Hannah declined to let his name be put forward again.

On 9 October 1976, Hannah dedicated a memorial at Cairns to commemorate the crews of RAAF Catalina flying boats who lost their lives in the South West Pacific during World War II. His vice-regal appointment lapsed on 20 March 1977, and he was succeeded the next month by Commodore Sir James Ramsay.

Retirement and death

Hannah retired following completion of his term as Governor of Queensland. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in August 1977 (backdated to March) as part of Queen Elizabeth II's Silver Jubilee visit to Australia. Hannah died of a heart attack on 22 May 1978 at his home in Surfers Paradise, Queensland. He was given a state funeral and cremated; his wife and daughter survived him. Hannah Community Park, straddling the suburbs of Fadden and Gowrie in Canberra, was established in his honour in 2002.