FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1957
1957 - 1848.PDF
938 FLIGHTi SERVICE AVIATION Royal Air Forces and Naval Flying News New Deputy Under-Secretaries APPOINTMENTS of Mr. R. H.**• Melville and Mr. H. T. Smith (portraits, p. 910) as Deputy Under-Secre-taries of State, in succession to Sir Folliott H. Sandford and Sir Victor H. Raby, havebeen announced by Air Ministry. Mr. Melville, an Assistant Under-secretary since 1946, is to be promoted from January 1 next year when Sir VictorRaby retires from public service; and Mr. Smith, who has been Principal Establish-ment Officer since 1955, will be promoted in the spring of next year when Sir FolliottSandford leaves Air Ministry to become Registrar of Oxford University. Three Senior AppointmentsN EW posts for three air vice-marshals—A.V-M. W. C. Sheen, A.V-M. A. D. Selway and A.V-M. D. M. T. Macdonald—have been announced by Air Ministry. A.V-M. Sheen is to be Commander ofR.A.F. Staff, British Joint Services Mission, Washington, U.S.A., from mid-March1958; A.V-M. Selway is to be A.O.C. No. 18 (Reconnaissance) Group, CoastalCommand, and Senior R.A.F. Officer, Scot- land, from May 1958; and A.V-M. D. M. T.Macdonald is to be Director-General of Manning at Air Ministry from Februarynext year. A.V-M. Sheen has been Director-Generalof Manning at Air Ministry since March 1955 and was previously Assistant Com-mandant of the R.A.F. Staff College. All his war service was with Bomber Com-mand. He commanded, in turn, Nos. 106, 49 and 61 Squadrons (in September 1940,flying Hampdens, he was awarded the D.S.O.) and the bomber O.T.U. at UpperHeyford. In 1943 he was appointed S.A.S.O. at No. 92 (Bomber Training) Group and in1944-45 he commanded the Elsham Wolds, Hemswell and Coningsby bomber stations. A.V-M. Selway has been Commander,R.A.F. Staff, British Joint Services Mission (U.S.A.) since November 1955 and waspreviously British Air Attache in Paris. At the outbreak of war he commanded No. 14(Bomber) Sqn. in the Middle East, being awarded the D.F.C. in 1940 for leading iton many attacks against targets in Eritrea. A.V-M. Macdonald has been Director-General of Personal Services at Air Ministry since March this year, having previouslytaken the 1956 Imperial Defence College course and before that been S.A.S.O. atTransport Command. Malayan Honours A SPECIAL list of R.A.F. honours and•**• awards in recognition of distinguished service in Malayan operations, publishedin the London Gazette last week, details the following: — Honours O.B.E.: W/C. A. Fry, M.B.E., B.Sc. M.B.E.: W/O. W. H. Varty; Acting W/O. R. W. Housby. Awards D.F.C.: F/Ls. T. Carbis and D. S. Lock-hart; F/O. K. R. Steer; M.Plt. A. F. B. Webb; Lt-Cdr. R. E. Wilson, R.N.; Capt. T. E. Nunn,R.R.A. Bar to A.F.C.: S/L. S. McCreith, A.F.C. D.F.M.: F/Sgt. F. J. Tattam; Sgts. R. F. Brooks and D. H. Rose, B.E.M., R.A.S.C. B.E.M. (Mil): Sgt. A. Sherring; Cpls. N. H. B. England and H. G. Naismith. Mentions in Despatches: G/C. J. B. Ross,M.B., B.Ch.; S/L.s T. G. Lee, R. G. Price, J. M. Rumsey and D. A. White; F/L.s L. C. E.Cox, R. G. C. Follis, D.F.C., F. H. Hicks (ret.), B. H. C. Martyn, B. P. W. Mercer, A J. New-bold, R.A.F. Regt., P. Sharpe and J. Walen- towicz; F/O.s H. P. Dixon and D. J. Dunstone;W/O.s A. Maurice and C. C. Smith; F/Sgts. D. A. Exley, M. J. Powell, R. H. Robertson, T.Szuwalski, J. F. Taylor and J. A. A'B. Win- chester; Sgts. F. A. E. Collings and J. F. Harris;Acting Sgt. G. D. Curtis; Cpls. J. Byrne, R. Gooch, B. Hall, G. J. Hill, J. Orr and G. E.Thompkins; S. A/C.s P. F. Derbyshire, T. Dineen and J. M. Polland. R.A.F. Awards AWARDS of the D.F.C. to F/L. D.- Harcourt-Smith; of the A.F.C. to F/O. J. H. Carter; and of the Queen'sCommendation for Brave Conduct to F/L. S. V. McCoy, M.B.E., were announced inthe London Gazette last week. F/L. Harcourt-Smith has been awardedthe D.F.C. "in recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty in air operations inAden"; F/O. Carter, of No. 220 Squadron, brought his Shackleton safely in to anemergency landing under adverse weather conditions after losing both engines on theport side and having subsequently had to fly 315 miles across the Atlantic to adiversion airfield at Lorient/Lennbihoue in France. The citation with F/L. McCoy'saward states that "when alone and armed only with a stick he successfully tackledand apprehended five intruders on Cluntoe airfield." Nottingham U.A.S. DinnerE VEN in these guided-missile days, theChief of the Air Staff may still be grounded by fog; but though for this rea-son Nottingham University Air Squadron were deprived of Air Chief Marshal SirDermot Boyle as principal guest at their annual dinner at R.A.F. Newton onDecember 4, his place was admirably filled by Air Marshal Sir Douglas Macfadyen,the A.O.C-in-C. Home Command. Sir Douglas, employing an apt TrentBridge metaphor to admit that in being asked to deputize at short notice for sucha notoriously good speaker as the C.A.S. he had been "bowled an extremely fast ball,"pointed out that a U.A.S. such as Notting- ham had been fortunate in recent axeingsin not losing its technical flight; and he confessed that having once been theadjutant of London U.A.S. he always had a very soft spot for university air squadrons. The Vice-Chancellor of NottinghamUniversity, Mr. B. L. Hallward, urged upon cadets the importance of masteringthe spoken and written word as a means of conveying their ideas with precision,topically citing Conrad as a master of his adopted language; and he paid tribute toS/L. N. Fletcher for "most distinguished leadership" of the squadron over the pasttwo-and-a-half years, during which it had twice come second in the Hack competi-tion and been runner-up and this year winner of the Reid Trophy. S/L. Fletcher, who is shortly handingover command to S/L. W. D. Hooper before going on an Army Staff Collegecourse, said this had been "an eminently successful year" for Nottingham U.A.S.There were 46 cadets (four more than last year); with the new intake numbers wouldrise to almost 70; 2,170 hr had already been flown; and, with a hoped-for 150 hrin December, last year's total of 2,200 hr should be exceeded. The Secretary of State for Air, Mr. George Ward (right), presenting the C. P. Robertson Memorial Trophy to Mr. Alan Chivers of the B.B.C., at the Air Public Relations Association annual reunion held recently at the R.A.F. Club. Mr. Chivers, a TV producer, won the award for his production of "This is Your Royal Air Force", presented last May. As a tribute to R.A.F. Newton, S/L..Fletcher presented a squadron plaque ta the station commander, W/C. R. J. E?Boulding; and the spirit of the cadets who fly from there was aptly summedup by Acting P/O. J. S. Wingrove who, in replying to the toast by Air MarshalMacfadyen, put past and future Notting- ham U.A.S. generations firmly in theirplace with the unequivocal assertion: "We are a damned fine squadron; itVnever been so fine as it is at the moment and it'll never be the same again." Recent Appointments AMONG appointments recently an- •**• nounced by Air Ministry are the following: — G/C. G. R. Bowler to H.Q., Flying Train-ing Command, for administrative staff duties; G/C. D. B. Hatfield to the Ministry of Supply;G/C. J. N. Ogle, to the Air Ministry, for duty in the Department of the Air Member forPersonnel; G/C. K. J. McKay to the Ministry of Supply; G/C. S. E. D. Mills to R.A.F. Inns-worth, to command, W/C. C. H. Baker to Air Ministry, for dutyin the Department of the Chief of the Air Staff; W/C. B. R. W. Hallows to the JointServices Staff College, for directing staff duties; W/C. H. Jagger to H.Q., Maintenance Com-mand, for administrative staff duties; W/C. M. Meehan to the Joint Anti-SubmarineSchool, Londonderry, for regiment duties; W/C. J. A. C. Secular to Air Ministry, forduty in the Department of the Chief of the Air Staff; Acting W/C. J. T. O'Sullivan toR.A.F. Felixstowe, to command. S/L. J. C. Blair to R.A.F. Coningsby, tocommand Holding Unit (with the acting rank of wing commander); S/L. L. J. Harding toR.A.F. Kirkham, for administrative duties (wiih the acting rank of wing commander); S/L. R. D-Walton to R.A.F. Topcliffe, for administrative duties (with the acting rank of wing commander)»: A.V-M. Enters Church A FORMER A.O.C. at A.H.Q. Mai?*:(from 1949 to 1952), A.V-M. N. H^ D'Aeth is to be ordained as a deacon at;Oxford Cathedral on December Z2.-' A.V-M. D'Aeth, who retired from theR.A.F. in June last year, commanded the Lancaster Aries of the Empire Air Navi-gation School on its record flights to India, Australia and New Zealand in August1946 and its non-stop flight from Cairo to Capetown in January that year. '•
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
