Sir John Reginald Cassidy was selected as the 1913 Queensland Rhodes Scholar. At the outbreak of war in 1914 he enlisted in the British Army and subsequently served on Gallipoli, rising to the rank of Captain by March 1916. He transferred to the RAF in 1918 and returned to Oxford in 1920 to study wireless.
He was made Squadron leader in 1930, Wing Commander in 1936, Group Captain in 1940 and Air Vice Marshal in 1943.
