Our action hero remembered
DECORATED World War II pilot and tireless public servant Sir Richard Kingsland has died in a Canberra hospital aged 95.
DECORATED World War II pilot and tireless public servant Sir Richard Kingsland has died in a Canberra hospital aged 95.
After enlisting as an RAAF pilot in 1935, Kingsland’s daring exploits were the stuff of legend.
Known then as Dick Cohen, his heroics read like the pages of a spy novel, with close-quarters gun fights, car chases and prison escapes in a host of exotic locations around the world.
He received the Distinguished Flying Cross for extricating a British envoy from France while being pursued and under heavy fire, and went on to became the youngest group captain in the RAAF’s history.
Three years after the end of the war, Kingsland made the move to the public service, where he became the manager of Sydney airport. He held several posts over the next decade, before being appointed the first assistant secretary in the Department of Defence, and five years after that he joined the Department of the Interior, which he is credited with overhauling and streamlining.
In 1970, he became the head of the Department of Veteran Affairs and introduced several key reforms.
In retirement Kingsland pursued his first love – the arts. A few years
earlier he had set up the Canberra School of Music, and was on countless boards, councils and committees, including the Australian War Memorial and the National Heart Foundation among others.
Wesley Browne, president of the Federation of Jewish Ex-Service Associations, sent a letter to Kingsland’s widow, Lady Kathleen Kingsland, conveying his condolences.
“Last Saturday, I attended the Great Synagogue … Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence included Sir Richard’s name in his sermon and said how proud we all were of this wonderful man and all his achievements during war and subsequently,” Browne wrote.
“I can assure you he will be remembered for many years to come.”
Kingsland was made a commander of the Order of the British empire in 1967, received a knighthood in 1978, and became an officer of the Order of Australia in 1989.
AJN STAFF
A young Sir Richard Kingsland.
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