Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
William Dakin
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1883-1950
History
Professor William Dakin was the Technical Director of Camouflage during WW2. Dakin was an academic from Sydney University, a zoologist with particular knowledge of Australian flora and fauna and the means by which living creatures escape their enemies. Although he acknowledged the importance of British methods of camouflage, he felt there was an urgency to develop designs and methods specific to the Australian environment, where “shadows are much darker, and it is the shadows of objects which are the greatest guides to observers in aeroplanes”. Noting that colours in Australia are more visible at a distance than in England, he helped devise a set of camouflage colours suited to the Australian landscape. For more information see: http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dakin-william-john-5863 and https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/journal/j38/camouflage