Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Edward Leonard Ellington, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served in the First World War as a staff officer and then as director-general of military aeronautics and subsequently as controller-general of equipment. In the inter-war years he held command positions in the Middle East, in India and then in Iraq. He served as Chief of the Air Staff in the mid-1930s and in that role he implemented a plan, known as 'Scheme F'. This scheme implemented an increase in the size of the Royal Air Force to 187 squadrons within three years to counter the threat from Hitler's Germany. He also broke up the command known as "Air Defence of Great Britain" to create RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command and RAF Training Command. He then served as Inspector-General of the RAF until his retirement in 1940.
Air Marshal David John Pocock, is a former senior Royal Air Force officer who served as Defence Services Secretary from 2004 to 2005.
Air Marshal Sir David Allan Walker, is a Director at Alexander Mann Solutions, and a member of the Advisory Board of Auticon. He is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer and Master of the Household to the Sovereign.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Andrew Henry Humphrey, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Second World War as a fighter pilot taking part in the Battle of Britain and also took part in the withdrawal from Aden in November 1967. He served as the Chief of the Air Staff advising the new Labour Government on the implementation of their latest Defence Review. He then served as Chief of the Defence Staff but caught pneumonia within three months of taking office and died shortly afterwards.
No. 1 School of Technical Training is the Royal Air Force's aircraft engineering school. It was based at RAF Halton from 1919 to 1993, as the Home of the Aircraft Apprentice scheme. The Aircraft Apprentice scheme trained young men in the mechanical trades for aircraft maintenance, the graduates of which were the best trained technicians in the RAF and would usually progress to Senior NCO ranks. However, ninety one ex-apprentices went on to achieve Air Rank. Many more became commissioned officers, including Sir Frank Whittle "father of the jet engine", who completed his apprenticeship at RAF Cranwell, before the move to RAF Halton. Graduates of the Aircraft Apprentice scheme at RAF Halton are known as Old Haltonians.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Thomas Geoffrey Pike, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served in the Second World War as a night fighter squadron commander and then as a station commander. He was Chief of the Air Staff in the early 1960s and, in that role, deployed British air power as part of the British response to the Brunei Revolt. Also, in the face of escalating costs, he implemented the cancellation of the British Blue Streak ballistic missile system but then found the RAF was without any such capability when the Americans cancelled their own Skybolt ballistic missile system. He went on to be Deputy Supreme Commander Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe in the mid-1960s.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Grandy, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He was the only officer who fought and commanded a squadron during the Battle of Britain to reach the post of Chief of the Air Staff. In the latter role he implemented the final stages of the RAF's withdrawal from the Persian Gulf and the Far East, oversaw the ordering and subsequent cancellation of the F-111 strike aircraft and handed over Britain's nuclear deterrent role to the Royal Navy.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Keith Alec Williamson, was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served with the Royal Australian Air Force flying Meteors in a ground attack role during the Korean War. He was a squadron commander and then a station commander during the 1960s and a senior air commander in the 1980s. He was Chief of the Air Staff during the early 1980s at the time of the emergency airlift of food and supplies to Ethiopia.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Joseph Charles French,, often known as Sir Joe French, is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer who was the last Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Strike Command (2006–07)
Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Bardon Hine, is a former senior Royal Air Force commander. Most notably, he was joint commander of all British forces during the Gulf War.
The Aircraft Apprentice Scheme was a training programme for Royal Air Force ground crew personnel which ran from 1920 to 1966.
Air Vice Marshal Sir Norman Duckworth Kerr MacEwen, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the first half of the 20th century.
Air Marshal Clifford Rodney Spink, is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer, who is now a Spitfire display pilot on the national air display circuit. The first Spitfire he ever flew belonged to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, during his tenure as Station Commander of RAF Coningsby. He also served as the 23rd Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps, the last but one officer to hold the post.
Air Marshal Sir Barry Mark "Baz" North, is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer, who served as Deputy Commander (Personnel) at RAF Air Command. A helicopter pilot, North has held command appointments at all levels, notably No. 78 Squadron in the Falkland Islands, the Special Forces Flight as a squadron leader and the newly established No. 83 Expeditionary Air Group in the Middle East as an air commodore.
The Air Secretary and Chief of Staff, Personnel is the Royal Air Force officer with responsibility for appointments, promotions, postings, and discipline of high ranking members of the British air force. From 1978 to 1983 the Air Secretary was more often referred to as "Air Officer Commanding Royal Air Force Personnel Management Centre". It is a senior RAF appointment, held by an officer holding the rank of air vice-marshal and appointed by the sovereign. The Air Secretary's counterpart in the British Army is the Military Secretary and the Royal Navy equivalent is the Naval Secretary.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Joseph Alfred Gilbert, is a former Royal Air Force officer who served as Deputy Commander of Strike Command from 1984 to 1986.
Air Marshal Sir Peter Edward Bairsto, was a Royal Air Force officer who served as Deputy Commander of Strike Command from 1981 until his retirement in 1984.
Air Marshal Sir Colin George Terry, is a retired Royal Air Force officer.
The Old Haltonian Association, which was founded by Lieutenant Colonel AFS Cardwell in 1925, was an important feature of the earliest years of the Royal Air Force's Apprentice training at the No. 1 School of Technical Training. The objects of the Old Haltonian Association were to stimulate interest and comradeship between all ex-Halton Apprentices, to provide information on the progress and activities of ex-Apprentices for those still under training and to give each Aircraft Apprentice at Halton an insight into the functions of Service units. It was a flourishing activity with representatives on every RAF unit and in the aircraft industry who all submitted reports to the Association's Halton Magazine on the doings of ex-Apprentices worldwide.
Air Vice-Marshal David Paul Murray, is a retired senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as Defence Services Secretary in the Royal Household from 2010 to 2012. He is currently a member of the Veterans Advisory Board and a Deputy Lieutenant for the County of Suffolk.
