Air Vice Marshal Francis Hubert (Frank) McNamara, VC, CB, CBE (4 April 1894 – 2 November 1961) was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for valour in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth forces.

Serving with the Australian Flying Corps, he was honoured for his actions on 20 March 1917, when he rescued a fellow pilot who had been forced down behind enemy lines.

[5] After serving briefly at bases in Queenscliff and Point Nepean, Victoria, McNamara passed through Officers Training School at Broadmeadows in December.

[2] Selected for flying training at Point Cook in August 1915, McNamara made his first solo flight in a Bristol Boxkite on 18 September, and graduated as a pilot in October.

[9][12] On his first sortie, a reconnaissance mission over Sinai, McNamara was unaware that his plane had been hit by anti-aircraft fire; he returned to base with his engine's oil supply almost exhausted.

[13] McNamara had successfully dropped three of his shells when the fourth exploded prematurely, badly wounded him in the leg with shrapnel, an effect he likened to being "hit with a sledgehammer".

[6][14] Allied airmen had been hacked to death by enemy troops in similar situations, and McNamara saw that a company of Turkish cavalry was fast approaching Rutherford's position.

In severe pain and close to blacking out from loss of blood, McNamara flew the damaged aircraft 70 miles (110 km) back to base at El Arish.

[14][15] Having effected what was described in the Australian official history of the war as "a brilliant escape in the very nick of time and under hot fire",[15] McNamara "could only emit exhausted expletives" before he lost consciousness shortly after landing.

For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during an aerial bomb attack upon a hostile construction train, when one of our pilots was forced to land behind the enemy's lines.

[4][8] Panic caused by the intrusion into Australian waters of the German raider Wolf resulted in him being recalled to the AFC and put in charge of an aerial reconnaissance unit based in South Gippsland, Victoria, flying a Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2B and later a Maurice Farman Shorthorn.

[21] He was not offered an appointment in the AAC initially, and secured one only after Captain Roy King protested the situation by giving up his own place in the new service in favour of McNamara, whom he described as "this very good and gallant officer".

He was promoted squadron leader in March 1924 and the following month married Hélène Bluntschli, a Belgian national he had met in Cairo during the war, at St Patrick's Cathedral;[2][6] his best man was fellow officer Frank Lukis.

[6] In 1928, McNamara resumed his studies at the University of Melbourne, having earlier failed to pass the necessary exams to enter the RAF Staff College, Andover.

[27] When World War II broke out in September 1939, McNamara was serving as Air Liaison Officer at Australia House in London, a position he had held since January 1938.

[1][28] Shortly before being promoted air commodore in December, he advocated establishing a reception base to act as a headquarters for the RAAF in England and "generally to watch the interests of Australian personnel" who were stationed there.

[35] Described in the official history of Australia in the war as a "backwater",[36] British Forces Aden's main functions were conducting anti-submarine patrols and escorting convoys.

That month McNamara was deeply affected by the loss of his close friend Peter Drummond, who had helped keep attacking cavalry at bay during his Victoria Cross action in 1917.

Drummond's Consolidated B-24 Liberator disappeared near the Azores en route to Canada and all aboard were presumed killed; McNamara had to break the news to his widow, Isabel.

[38] McNamara's health had also suffered from exposure to the desert dust in Aden, and he was unable to take up his next position as the RAAF's representative at the Ministry of Defence until September.

[3] McNamara was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946, along with several other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, officially to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers.

[6][41] Embittered by his dismissal from the RAAF and the meagre severance he received from the Australian Government, McNamara insisted that his Victoria Cross not be returned to Australia after his death; his family donated it to the RAF Museum, London.

1 Squadron pilot, Lieutenant (later Air Vice Marshal) Adrian Cole, described McNamara as "quiet, scholarly, loyal and beloved by all ... the last Officer for whom that high honour would have been predicted".

[6][42] He was one of the few VC recipients to attain senior rank in the armed services, though RAAF historian Alan Stephens considered his appointments largely "routine" and that his one great deed led to "a degree of fame that he perhaps found burdensome".