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 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.
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.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael James Graydon, is a retired Royal Air Force (RAF) officer. He was a fast jet pilot in the 1960s, a squadron commander in the 1970s and a station commander in the 1980s before serving as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Strike Command during the Gulf War. He was Chief of the Air Staff from 1992 to 1997, in which role he advised the British Government on the implementation of No Fly Zones in Iraq and Bosnia and implemented the Front Line First initiative.
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 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 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.
RAF Locking was a Royal Air Force station near the village of Locking and about 3 miles (4.8 km) from Weston-super-Mare in North Somerset, England. During the period 1939 to 2000, the station trained tens of thousands of engineers in the maintenance of aircraft then radar, radio and computers.
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 Chief Marshal Sir Douglas Charles Lowe, was a Second World War pilot and a senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the 1970s and early 1980s.
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 Marshal Graeme Alan Robertson, is a former Royal Air Force commander who after retirement worked for BAE Systems.
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 Chief Marshal Sir John Robson Rogers, was a senior Royal Air Force commander.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael John Armitage, was a British senior Royal Air Force commander.
Air Marshal Sir Julian Alexander Young, is a retired senior Royal Air Force (RAF) officer who served as Chief of Materiel (Air) at Defence Equipment and Support, concurrently holding the appointments of Air Member for Materiel on the Air Force Board and Chief Engineer (RAF).
