Geoffrey Salmond - Royal Flying Corps Service

Royal Flying Corps Service

Salmond was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate no. 421 on 18 February 1913, and then joined the reserve of the Royal Flying Corps on 17 April 1913. He became a staff office at the War Office on 31 July 1913, a staff officer in the Directorate of Military Aeronautics on 31 August 1913 and then a staff officer at Headquarters Royal Flying Corps in France on 4 August 1914.

Salmond went on to take up the post of Officer Commanding No. 1 Squadron RFC on 26 January 1915. In the First World War the squadron operated over the Western Front and Salmond and his squadron took part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle, including the Battle of Hill 60 and the Battle of Aubers Ridge. He was appointed a wing commander on 18 August 1915 and sent to command the 5th Wing RFC in Egypt in November 1916. He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 3 June 1916.

In July 1916, Salmond was promoted to temporary brigadier-general and given command of the RFC in the Middle East. The Distinguished Service Order was conferred on him on 3 March 1917:

"for conspicuous ability and devotion to duty when personally directing the work of the Royal Flying Corps during the action. The striking success attained was largely due to his magnificent personal example."

The action referred to was during the operations in Sinai at the end of 1916. In this command he was responsible for providing air cooperation for General Jan Smuts's force in East Africa, for the forces in Salonika and Mesopotamia, for Allenby's conquest of Palestine, and for the RFC in India. He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 3 September 1918.

While holding the command of the Middle East, he had laid out an airway from Cairo to South Africa, clearing a chain of aerodromes in Central Africa. His idea was to send a demonstration flight or flights of RAF aircraft across Africa, thus providing the link of which Cecil Rhodes had dreamed in a Cape-to-Cairo railway. Salmond contemplated flights by both landplane and flying-boat. He was not destined to put his idea into execution, though his airway was used by Sir Pierre van Ryneveld and Sir Christopher Brand on their first flight to South Africa. He was appointed a Grand Officer of the Egyptian Order of the Nile on 9 November 1918, a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 New Year Honours, and a Grand Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer on 5 April 1919. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George on 3 June 1919 and mentioned in despatches on account of his services in the Middle East on 28 June 1919.