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WILLIAM PATRICK RYAN

1923 - 2021

 William Patrick Ryan was born on the 13th of June 1923 and was the youngest of eight children born to Owen and Bridget Ryan. His father and mother ran a wheat and sheep farm at Mirrool Creek, near Ariah Park, NSW.  Growing up in the 1930’s, life was often challenging, but William enjoyed his early life. Initially, he attended the Ariah Public School. He was a good student for his early years and eventually gained a Scholarship to attend Temora High School. However, he grew restless with education, and at only 13 left school all together, and began working on the family farm more full time. Over time, he became responsible for the families’ horses, which were bred and sold, starting a passion for the animals that would last his lifetime. Initially the family prioritised growing wheat, but finding the crop unprofitable, they soon switched to sheep farming. At one stage, William recalled eating sheep almost constantly, three meals per day.

After waiting some time for his intake, William was sent to Temora where he underwent examinations and classes for three months, eventually grading him as a pilot. He then moved to Temora Airfield and began his first time flying in old Tiger Moth biplanes. After passing on the Tiger Moths, he moved to Point cook and completed further training on Airspeed AS.10 Oxford’s. Finally, he moved to Mildura and began training as a fight pilot on the Kittyhawk’s.  Upon completing all his training, he found himself posted to 84 Squadron out of Townsville, Qld.

After the war, the RAAF put out a call if any pilots wished to remain in the service. Not expecting many replies, they were overwhelmed by the hundreds of responses looking for positions in the peace time air force. William was one of the lucks few selected to stay on. He was eventually assigned as a Mustang pilot with No.81 Air Wing and deployed to Japan. Whilst in Japan, he found the atmosphere boring. There was no war to fight, and free time was heavily restricted due to initial fears of resistance and fraternisation. Eventual, William was given charge of a group of POW workers waiting to be demobilised. He found a vacated dump site, and putting his labour force to work operated a small farm lot that he used to feed the base and the locals. Following the POW’s demobilisation, Williams was made laundry officer. He held this posting until his rotation was up, and after 18 months in Japan he rotated back to Australia.

After returning, he was reposted to the Sydney area where he was transferred to the 86th Air Wing. This was a big change for William as he was now flying C-47 Douglas, quite different from the fighters had flown for years. With 38 Squadron, he possibly took part in the Wings mission to Germany, where they flew as part of the Berlin Air Lift, though this has not been confirmed. However, he was almost certainly one of the pilots of the four Douglas’ that flew missions into Malaya in June 1950, as part of Australia’s first involvement in what would become known as the Malayan Emergency.

In late 1951, 38 Squadron redeployed to Malaya for a second rotation. During this time, they largely carried out supply drops, though on a few occasions conducted paratrooper operations with British forces. The squadron remained in Malaya until December 1952. After leaving, they returned to Australia and were posted to Canberra as a training unit.  In 1953, he worked with the RAAF as part of the London to Wellington Air Race. He flew his Dakota to London, and then going ahead of the race delivered replacement navigators at the various stops. William remained in the RAAF as an instructor until 1956 where upon he retired, giving up flying.

After leaving the service, William initially built a house in Girraween in Sydney. For a time, he worked as an instructor at Bankstown airport, teaching civilian pilots how to fly and get their licences. Eventually, he took up farming poultry. His entire property and all his farms were destroyed tragically in the 1967 bush fires, though his family survived by taking refuge in a dam on the property. At some point after, his family moved to Hobart, Tasmania where William got a job raising money for the Catholic Church, being sent all over the country. With his wife Winifred, the couple also raised three children throughout their lives. William remained in Hobart until his death in 2021.

Thank you to Philip Hoysted, whose interview with William Ryan was a major source of information for this research. 

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