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Dawn McCafferty

Chairman

For those interested in such details, I was born in the Rhondda Valley, South Wales, so consider myself Welsh whenever the Welsh Rugby team are winning and English the rest of the time. I left Wales at the tender age of 6 with my family and lived in Wigston Magna, near Leicester, and Kettering before leaving the family home to join the RAF. I joined up at 19 years of age for a 4-year Short Service Commission as an Administrative Secretarial Officer and left the RAF in 2006 having completed 23 years – I never was any good at maths!

I enjoyed a varied career in the RAF which culminated in my appointment as the first female Group Captain Inspector of Recruiting for the RAF. On route to this hugely rewarding job, I undertook a wide range of management roles within the Service, including command of the Personnel Management Squadron at RAF Wittering and the Administrative Wing at RAF Waddington. I completed staff tours in Command Headquarters and in the MOD and was able to fly in a variety of RAF aircraft, including a low-level trip in a Jaguar on my 21st birthday and a flight in one of the Red Arrows to mark my departure from the Service.

I decided to leave the RAF as I didn’t want to live apart from my family. Repeated staff tours in MOD and Air Command beckoned and, having settled in Lincolnshire and stabilised the children’s education for the first time, I opted to leave and find employment closer to home but still linked to the Service. The opportunity to work for RAFA in developing a new RAF Families Federation was too good an opportunity to miss and I am thoroughly enjoying working from Wittering, whilst still maintaining links with many friends and colleagues in the RAF.

In my spare time, I enjoy keeping fit and have recently taken up Yoga and Pilates as well as walking, every day. Married to Paul, a retired wing commander, and mother to Laura aged 13 and Peter aged 8, we balance work and home life with the support of a fantastic French au pair, the latest in a line of superb nannies and au-pairs who have kept our family on an even keel for the last 12 years. I couldn’t do what I do without the support of my family and I know for certain that the RAF couldn’t achieve operational success without the enduring support of the families of those who serve. I therefore look forward to representing the views of RAF personnel to those who can improve RAF family life.

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