Date of birth:

June 5th, 1920 (Gothenburg, Sweden)

Date of death:

November 7th, 2000

Service number:

80372 120562

Nationality:

South African (1910-1961, Union)

William MacGillivray was born in Gothenburg, Sweden on 5 June 1920, to parents of Scottish descent who had emigrated to South Africa around 1904. He grew up in Johannesburg and completed his schooling at Michaelhouse in Natal (now KwaZulu Natal).

He enlisted in the RAF in early 1940 and received his flying training in Bulawayo in now Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia) and navigation training at George in the Western Cape Province of South Africa.

He was posted to the UK where he flew in Coastal Command out of bases in Norfolk before being transferred to Nairobi in Kenya where his squadron, East African Communications, flew logistics and reconnaissance missions over the Horn of Africa and the Western half of the Indian Ocean including Madagascar and Mauritius.
He was then transferred to Egypt and was appointed onto the staff of Air Vice Marshall Sir Charles Medhurst as one of his pilots. He completed his service in the RAF in Palestine (now Israel) in 1946 and returned to South Africa.
He received a B. Comm. degree from the University of Witwatersrand and, after a decade in business in Johannesburg, he bought a dairy farm near Howick in KwaZulu Natal where he built up a very successful stud dairy herd and sheep flock.

He died at home on 7 November 2000, aged 80, leaving his wife of 51 years, Pam (1920-2004), 3 children and 7 grandchildren.

2 December 1943: Flight Lieutenant (war sub)
12 October 1946: commission resigned

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• Photo 1: Allan MacGillivray
• - The London Gazette Publication date:7 December 1943 Supplement:36280Page:5383
  - The London Gazette Publication date:11 January 1944 Issue:36329Page:295
  - The London Gazette Publication date:25 October 1946 Supplement:37770Page:5304
  - The London Gazette Publication date:31 December 1946 Supplement:37835Page:28