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Aviation History
1961
1961 - 1035.PDF
FLIGHT, 27 July 1961 137 SERVICE AVIATION Air Force, Naval and Army Flying News "Flight" photograph The Prime Minister, Mr Harold Macmillan, unveiling the Trenchard Memorial on Victoria Embankment, London, on July 19 as sixteen Hunters of No 92 Sqn (left) flew overhead in salute. The statue (below) depicts Viscount Trenchard in the full dress uniform of a Marshal of the Royal Air Force. His was the first appointment—in 1927—to this highest RAF rank Commemorating Viscount Trenchard LORD TRENCHARD was a great man: great in stature,great in spirit, great in courage and great in achievement.To no one man are we so indebted for all that the RoyalAir Force has done for this country in the past and for all that it does today as we are to him. "He established the standards which those who came after himhave maintained. He inspired the new Air Force with faith in its own future as a great Service. He moulded it on lines which havestood the test of time and technical advance." Thus the Prime Minister, Mr Harold Macmillan, speaking whenhe unveiled the memorial statue of Viscount Trenchard in Victoria Embankment Gardens, London, outside the main Air Ministrybuilding and next door to Scotland Yard, Trenchard's headquarters when he was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. The statue,which was dedicated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr A. M. Ramsey, looks out towards the RAF and RFC Memorial on thebank of the Thames (surely no London statue has a more appropri- ate position ?): slightly larger than life-size, it is the work of MrWilliam McMillan and stands on a Portland cement pedestal designed by Sir Albert Richardson. Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (1873-1956), was thefirst Marshal of the Royal Air Force—appointed in 1927—and first Chief of the Air Staff (1918-29). He foresaw the need for atraining establishment for the RAF, on the lines of the Royal Military College, and the RAF College at Cranwell was the result.(Similarly, when Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1931 to 1935, he founded the Hendon Police College.) At all timesTrenchard fought for the independence of the service he had done so much to bring into being in 1918, and his title "Father of theRoyal Air Force" was earned by his lifelong devotion to its fur- therance and well-being. [Other Service aviation news: page 138, overleaf] "Flight" photograph
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