Portal:Somerset/Selected biography/2
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Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
B. February 3, 1873 – d. February 10, 1956 (aged 83)
Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the Father of the Royal Air Force. He was born in Taunton and in 1912, Trenchard learnt to fly and was subsequently appointed as second in command of the Central Flying School. He held several senior positions in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I, serving as the commander of Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he briefly served as the first Chief of the Air Staff before taking up command of the Independent Air Force in France. Returning as Chief of the Air Staff under Winston Churchill in 1919, Trenchard spent the following decade securing the future of the Royal Air Force. He was Metropolitan Police Commissioner in the 1930s and a defender of the RAF in his later years. Trenchard is recognized today as one of the first advocates of strategic bombing. (Full article...)