Raymond Brownell
Senior Royal Australian Air Force officer
Died when: 79 years 330 days (958 months)Star Sign: Taurus
Air Commodore Raymond James Brownell, CBE, MC, MM (17 May 1894 – 12 April 1974) was a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and a First World War flying ace.
Born in Hobart, Tasmania, Brownell was working as a clerk with a firm of accountants when he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the outbreak of the First World War.
He served during the Gallipoli Campaign before transferring to the Western Front.Awarded the Military Medal for his actions during the Battle of Pozières, he was accepted for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps in 1917.
After flight training in the United Kingdom, Brownell was commissioned as a second lieutenant and posted for operational service over the Western Front in September 1917.
Moving with his squadron to Italy, he was awarded the Military Cross and credited with shooting down 12 aircraft by war's end.
Taking his discharge in 1919, Brownell returned to Australia.Commissioned in the RAAF in 1921, Brownell had risen to the rank of group captain by the beginning of the Second World War.
Establishing the RAAF base in Singapore, he returned to Australia in 1941 as an air commodore and was appointed to lead No. 1 Training Group.
He was Air Officer Commanding Western Area from January 1943 until July 1945, when he took charge of the recently formed No. 11 Group on Morotai.
Retiring from the Air Force in 1947, Brownell assumed a partnership in a stockbroking firm.He died in 1974 aged 79; his autobiography, From Khaki to Blue, was published posthumously.
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