Later Life
Slessor completed his term as Chief of the Air Staff on 31 December 1952 and retired from the RAF in the new year. He attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953. He published two books in retirement: his autobiography, The Central Blue (1956), and The Great Deterrent (1957). He also served as Honorary Air Commodore of No. 3 (County of Devon) Maritime Headquarters Unit Royal Auxiliary Air Force from 23 May 1963.
A member of Somerset County Council from 1963 to 1974, Slessor served as High Sheriff of Somerset from 1962 to 1966. He was appointed Deputy Lieutenant of Somerset in 1969. Following the death of his first wife, Hermione Grace Guinness, he married Marcella Florence Priest (née Spurgeon) in 1971. Slessor died at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Wroughton in Wiltshire on 12 July 1979. His son John also joined the RAF, rising to the rank of group captain.
Read more about this topic: John Slessor
Famous quotes containing the word life:
“Have a care over my people. You have my people—do you that which I ought to do. They are my people.... See unto them—see unto them, for they are my charge.... I care not for myself; my life is not dear to me. My care is for my people. I pray God, whoever succeedeth me, be as careful of them as I am.”
—Elizabeth I (1533–1603)
“Surely among a rich man’s flowering lawns,
Amid the rustle of his planted hills,
Life overflows without ambitious pains;
And rains down life until the basin spills,
And mounts more dizzy high the more it rains
As though to choose whatever shape it wills....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)