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Air Vice Marshal Donald Clifford Tyndall Bennett, was an Australian aviation pioneer and bomber pilot who rose to be the youngest air vice marshal in the Royal Air Force. He led the "Pathfinder Force" from 1942 to the end of the Second World War in 1945. He has been described as "one of the most brilliant technical airmen of his generation: an outstanding pilot, a superb navigator who was also capable of stripping a wireless set or overhauling an engine".
An equerry is an officer of honour. Historically, it was a senior attendant with responsibilities for the horses of a person of rank. In contemporary use, it is a personal attendant, usually upon a sovereign, a member of a royal family, or a national representative. The role is equivalent to an aide-de-camp, but the term is now prevalent only in the Commonwealth of Nations.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir David Benjamin Bathurst, is a former Royal Navy officer. After training as a pilot and qualifying as a helicopter instructor, Bathurst commanded a Naval Air Squadron and then two frigates before achieving higher command in the Navy. He served as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff from 1993 to 1995: in that capacity he advised the British Government on the deployment of Naval Support including Sea Harriers during the Bosnian War.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Henry Francis Oliver, was a Royal Navy officer. After serving in the Second Boer War as a navigating officer in a cruiser on the Cape of Good Hope and West Coast of Africa Station, he became the first commanding officer of the new navigation school HMS Mercury in the early years of the 20th century. He went to be commanding officer first of the armoured cruiser HMS Achilles and then of the new battleship HMS Thunderer before becoming Director of the Intelligence Division at the Admiralty.
Group Captain Peter Wooldridge Townsend, was a British Royal Air Force officer, flying ace, courtier and author. He was equerry to King George VI from 1944 to 1952 and held the same position for Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953. Townsend notably had a romance with Princess Margaret, Elizabeth's younger sister.
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Henry Dacres Cunningham was a Royal Navy officer. A qualified senior navigator, he became Director of Plans at the Admiralty in 1930. He saw action as Commander-in-Chief of the Mediterranean Fleet during the Second World War with responsibility for the allied landings at Anzio and in the south of France. He served as First Sea Lord in the late 1940s: his focus was on implementing the Government's policy of scrapping many serviceable ships.
Flight Lieutenant John Alan Quinton, GC, DFC was a British navigator and pilot who was posthumously awarded the George Cross for an act of outstanding bravery where he unselfishly saved a young air cadet whilst losing his own life after the aircraft he was in was involved in a mid-air collision over Yorkshire.
Air Vice-Marshal Ekanayake Edward Rohan Ameresekere, was a senior officer in the Royal Ceylon Air Force. He served as the third Commander of the Royal Ceylon Air Force. He previously served he had served as a navigator in the Royal Air Force during World War II, before qualifying as a pilot in the newly formed Royal Ceylon Air Force.
Squadron Leader Henry Melvin "Dinghy" Young, was a bomber pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve during the Second World War.
Air Commodore Edward Barnes Sismore DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC, AE was a British air navigator and fighter pilot during the Second World War, and a senior Royal Air Force officer in the post-war years. Sismore served as the thirteenth Commandant Royal Observer Corps between 1971 and 1973.
Squadron Leader Peter Christy, SJ, was a PAF bomber pilot and weapon systems officer (WSO). A B-57 Canberra navigator, Squadron Leader Christy was officially declared "missing in action" since December 1971, but widely presumed dead by the Pakistan Armed Forces as of 2004.
Roy Oldfield Calvert, was an officer of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War. He is one of only four New Zealand born airmen to receive two Bars to his Distinguished Flying Cross.
Air Vice-Marshal Margaret Elaine West, is a senior Royal Air Force officer. She was the first woman to hold a non-honorary air vice-marshal or equivalent rank in the British Armed Forces since the Second World War, and the first to achieve that rank in the regular forces. In September 2021, West was appointed to the Royal Household as a Lady Usher.
Wing Commander James Flint, was a British businessman and decorated Royal Air Force officer. During active service in World War II, he gained the unique distinction of receiving two gallantry awards for separate actions during the same operation.
Maurice David Fenner was an English military airman and amateur cricketer. He rose to the rank of Group Captain in the Royal Air Force, played first-class cricket for Combined Services and Kent County Cricket Club and was secretary of the county club in later life.
Air Commodore Roy Gilbert Dutton, was a Royal Air Force officer and decorated flying ace. He flew Hurricanes during the Second World War and was credited with 19 confirmed aerial victories.
Kenneth Tempest, was a Royal Air Force navigator with No. 139 Squadron RAF during the Second World War flying Mosquitos. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service. After the war he trained as a pilot and flew with BOAC in the Bristol Britannia and the VC10.
Air Marshal Gavin Neil "Leo" Davies, is a retired senior officer of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). A navigator who retrained as a pilot, he joined the RAAF in 1979, commanded No. 1 Squadron RAAF (2002–03) and No. 82 Wing RAAF (2004–05), deployed to Iraq in 2007, and was Australia's air attaché in Washington, D.C. (2010–11). He served as Deputy Chief of Air Force from 2012 to 2015 and succeeded Air Marshal Geoff Brown as Chief of Air Force, the professional head of the RAAF, in July 2015. He retired from the RAAF in July 2019.
Geoffrey Phelps Longfield was an English first-class cricketer and Royal Air Force officer. Enlisting in the Royal Air Force in 1929, he played first-class cricket for the Royal Air Force cricket team in the early 1930s, before later serving in the Second World War with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, during which he was killed on a mission while commanding 105 Squadron.
Air Vice Marshal Stephen Leslie Meredith, is a senior officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He joined the RAAF as a navigator in 1986. He has commanded No. 6 Squadron RAAF (2006–08), No. 42 Wing RAAF (2008–10), the Aerospace Operational Support Group RAAF (2014–16) and the Combined Air Operations Centre (2017), and has served on operations in the Gulf War, War in Afghanistan and in the International military intervention against ISIL. He served as Head Force Integration from 2017 to 2019, before being appointed Deputy Chief of Air Force in July 2019.