The RAF Staff College at RAF Andover was the first Royal Air Force staff college to be established. Its role was the training of officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters.
The RAF Staff College at RAF Andover was the first Royal Air Force staff college to be established. Its role was the training of officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters.
Following the foundation of the RAF in April 1918 and the end of the First World War in November 1918, there was a determination to maintain the Air Force as an independent service rather than let the Army and Royal Navy control air operations again. Therefore, the creation of an RAF Staff College to parallel the Army Staff College and the Royal Naval Staff College was an important element in fully establishing the RAF.
On 14 November 1921, Air Commodore Robert Brooke-Popham was tasked with setting up the RAF Staff College. On 1 April the following year, the new RAF Staff College came into being with Brooke-Popham as its first commandant. The Staff College was based at RAF Andover and was subordinate to Inland Area.
The dog seen in the photograph on Robert Brooke-Popham's lap was Jane who was buried in the Staff College grounds. [1] The gravestone still exists [2] and was the only remaining memorial to the college in 2010.
From its foundation and through the 1920s and 1930s, the Staff College provided training to selected officers (usually promising flight lieutenants or squadron leaders) to prepare them for staff duties at the Air Ministry or at Command or Group headquarters.
Although the College was closed on 3 September 1939, the day the British declaration of war was made, it reopened the same November running shorter courses. However, the next year on 28 May 1940, the College closed again. The RAF reopened its staff college at Bulstrode Park in December 1941. The College at Bulstrode Park was later reduced in size and only offered training to allied and foreign air force officers. When Bulstrode Park closed in 1948, this smaller College returned to Andover and its role in training overseas officers was continued. It was not until 1970 that the Staff College at Andover finally closed when it was absorbed into the RAF Staff College at Bracknell.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a wing commander and senior staff officer. Remaining in the new Royal Air Force (RAF) after the war, Brooke-Popham was the first commandant of its Staff College at Andover and later held high command in the Middle East. He was Governor of Kenya in the late 1930s. Most notably, Brooke-Popham was Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command until being replaced a few weeks before Singapore fell to Japanese troops.
No. 12 Group of the Royal Air Force was a command organization that existed over two separate periods, namely the end of World War I when it had a training function and from just prior to World War II until the early 1960s when it was tasked with an air defence role.
RAF Andover is a former Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station in England, 2 miles (3.2 km) west of Andover, Hampshire. As well as RFC and RAF units, units of the Aviation Section, U.S. Signal Corps, Royal Canadian Air Force, United States Army Air Forces, and the Air Transport Auxiliary were also stationed at the airfield.
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Denis Frank Spotswood, was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. He fought in the Second World War as a flying boat pilot and then as a coastal reconnaissance squadron commander during Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa. He served as a station commander in the late 1940s and early 1950s before becoming a senior air commander in the late 1950s. As the Chief of the Air Staff in the early 1970s he had a major role in implementing the defence savings demanded by the Heath Government in the face of economic difficulties at the time.
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Air Marshal Sir Arthur William Baynes McDonald, was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Pakistan Air Force from 1955 to 1957.
Air Vice-Marshal Leslie William Cannon, was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Pakistan Air Force from 1952 to 1955.
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The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force training and education academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to be commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and is responsible for all RAF recruiting along with officer and aircrew selection. Originally established as a naval aviation training centre during World War I, the College was established as the world's first air academy in 1919. During World War II, the College was closed and its facilities were used as a flying training school. Reopening after the War, the College absorbed the Royal Air Force Technical College in 1966.
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Air Marshal Sir Leslie Dalton Morris, was a senior Royal Air Force (RAF) commander in the middle of the twentieth century. He played a leading role in the use of signals in the Air Force both during and after the Second World War.
The RAF Staff College at Bracknell was a Royal Air Force staff college active for most of the second half of the 20th century. Its role was the training of staff officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters. Its motto was Visu et Nisu which is Latin for by vision and effort. The equivalent in the British Army was the Staff College, Camberley and the equivalent in the Royal Navy was the Royal Naval Staff College, Greenwich.
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