Retirement and legacy

McNamara was summarily retired from the RAAF in 1946, along with a number of other senior commanders and veterans of World War I, officially to make way for the advancement of younger and equally capable officers. In addition, McNamara's role overseas had become redundant.^[38][39] He was discharged from the Air Force on 11 July.^[8] In May 1946, the British government offered McNamara the position of Senior Education Control Officer in Westphalia, Germany, under the auspices of the Allied Control Commission. He later became Deputy Director of Education for the British Zone of Occupation.^[21] McNamara continued to live in England after completing his work with the Commission in October 1947, and served on the National Coal Board in London from 1947 to 1959.^[3][5] He died of hypertensive heart failure on 2 November 1961, aged 67, after suffering a fall at his home in Buckinghamshire. Survived by his wife and two children, he was buried at St Joseph's Priory, Austin Wood, Gerrards Cross, following a large funeral.^[6][40]
Embittered by his dismissal from the RAAF and the meagre severance he received from the Australian Government, McNamara had insisted that his Victoria Cross not be returned to Australia after his death; his family donated it to the RAF Museum, London.^[21] Fellow No. 1 Squadron pilot, Lieutenant (later Air Vice Marshal) Adrian Cole, described McNamara as "quiet, scholarly, loyal and beloved by all ... the last Officer for whom that high honour would have been predicted".^[6][41] He was one of the few Victoria Cross recipients to subsequently attain senior rank in the armed services, however RAAF historian Dr Alan Stephens considered that his appointments were "in the main routine" and that his one great deed led to "a degree of fame that he perhaps found burdensome".^[14][42] Biographer Chris Coulthard-Clark summed up McNamara's "dilemma" as that of "an essentially ordinary man" thrust into the limelight by one "truly amazing episode".^[42] His name is borne by Frank McNamara Park in Shepparton, Victoria,^[43] and the Frank McNamara VC Club at Oakey Army Aviation Centre, Queensland.^[44][45]