Douglas Wilson (RAAF officer)
| D. E. L. (Douglas) Wilson | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | "Del" |
| Born |
1 December 1898 Berowra or Lithgow, New South Wales |
| Died | 1 August 1950 (aged 51) Concord, NSW |
| Allegiance | Australia |
| Service/branch |
Australian Army (1916–23) Royal Australian Air Force (1923–46) |
| Years of service | 1916–1946 |
| Rank | Group Captain |
| Commands held |
Western Area (1945) RAF Holme-on-Spalding Moor (1943) RAF Linton-on-Ouse (1943) RAF Wyton (1943) AUSGROUP (1942) North-Western Area (1941–42) |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Awards | War Cross (Czechoslovakia) |
Group Captain Douglas Ernest Lancelot "Del" Wilson (1 December 1898 – 2 August 1950) was a senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II.
During early 1942, as an acting Air Commodore, Wilson was part of the short-lived Allied supreme command for South East Asia and the South West Pacific, the American-British-Dutch-Australian Command (ABDACOM). Afterwards, he was attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF) in North West Europe, and spent more than a year as a prisoner of war (POW) in Nazi Germany.
Wilson was the son of Ellen and Henry E. Wilson. Most sources state he was born at Berowra, in the northern suburbs of Sydney, on 1 December 1898, although his birth was registered at Lithgow, New South Wales in 1899. He grew up at Lithgow.
He graduated from Sydney Boys High School in 1916. Shortly afterward, Wilson passed the examination for entrance to the Australian Army college, Duntroon, which he entered the following year.
Wilson remained at Duntroon until 1920, when he was seconded to the British Army, for training courses in the UK, where he was attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery.
Transferring to the RAAF when it was established in 1923, Wilson was in the first group to graduate from No. 1 Flying Training School and consequently, throughout his career, carried a two-digit RAAF service number: 16. Others who graduated at the same time had also transferred from the army and later became prominent in military or civil aviation, including Joe Hewitt, Frank Bladin, and Lester Brain.
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