Early Career
Welsh started his career in the Merchant Navy and from 1910 he was midshipman in the Royal Navy Reserve prior to the outbreak of World War I, Welsh joined the Royal Naval Air Service in November 1914 as a pilot at RNAS Calshot. During the early years of the war, Welsh acted as a test pilot and became one of the first pilots to fly a plane off an early carrier, flying a Sopwith Schneider floatplane off HMS Campania, while sailing at approximately 18 knots, on 6 August 1915. He again repeated this on 3 November with the ship sailing at full speed. Welsh was shot down while flying a Sopwith Baby seaplane, landing only six miles northeast of Dunkirk on 23 April 1917, although he was unhurt in the crash.
In 1918, Welsh received his first command as head of No. 17 Squadron RNAS, which became No. 217 Squadron on the formation of the RAF and then went on to command No. 214 Squadron from January 1918. Stationed in Egypt, Welsh was awarded a permanent commission as a Major on 1 August 1919.
Read more about this topic: William Welsh (RAF Officer)
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or career:
“The secret of heaven is kept from age to age. No imprudent, no sociable angel ever dropt an early syllable to answer the longings of saints, the fears of mortals. We should have listened on our knees to any favorite, who, by stricter obedience, had brought his thoughts into parallelism with the celestial currents, and could hint to human ears the scenery and circumstance of the newly parted soul.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“He was at a starting point which makes many a man’s career a fine subject for betting, if there were any gentlemen given to that amusement who could appreciate the complicated probabilities of an arduous purpose, with all the possible thwartings and furtherings of circumstance, all the niceties of inward balance, by which a man swings and makes his point or else is carried headlong.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)