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CAS joins Her Majesty The Queen in celebrating an Australian Air Force Century

Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston KCB CBE ADC represented the RAF held at the Air Forces memorial in
Surrey at a small ceremony that was conducted in line with extant COVID-19 regulations.


The Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force have a relationship forged in our shared combat experience, and reinforced by our similar world views, common culture and a coincidence of wider interests. I am immensely proud of the way the RAAF and RAF operate together and I would like to think our predecessors - all the way back in 1921 - would feel the same way. I look forward to the next one hundred years as we continue to cooperate around the world, tackling emerging threats with unity of purpose, and building on the shared vision statement Air Marshal Mel Hupfeld, the Chief of Air Force, and I signed in November last year.

ACM Wigston

ACM Wigston in conversation with members from the Royal Australian Air Force

The event was attended by the Australian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, His Excellency the Honourable George Brandis QC who was joined by representatives of the RAAF serving alongside RAF colleagues on exchange. At the start of the ceremony the RAF Aerobatic Team, the Red Arrows, overflew the event.

Red Arrows flying over the event at Runnymede

Runnymede Memorial or the Air Forces Memorial, as it is sometimes known, commemorates the 20,456 men and women from Britain & the Dominions, who lost their lives in WWII and have no known grave. It is positioned on Cooper’s Hill, Surrey overlooking the River Thames and Runnymede Meadow, where the Magna Carta was sealed by King John in 1215.