Royal Naval Air Service - Notable Personnel

Notable Personnel

• Henry Allingham – Mechanic – oldest man in the world from June to July 2009 and the last surviving member of the RNAS
• Richard Bell-Davies – 3 Squadron – awarded the Victoria Cross
• Norman Blackburn – Aviation pioneer and Joint Managing Director of Blackburn Aircraft
• Henry John Lawrence Botterell – Naval 8 – longest surviving World War I fighter pilot (he died January 3, 2003 at age 106)
• Frederick Bowhill – Squadron commander in Wing 2, later Commander-in-chief Transport Command RAF. Air Chief Marshal
• Arthur Roy Brown – Naval 9 – ace, officially credited with shooting down the Red Baron (although this is now generally discredited)
• Arnold Jacques Chadwick – DSC – Naval 4 ace on two types of aircraft: Sopwith Pup and Sopwith Camel
• Raymond Collishaw – Naval 10 – top RNAS ace, with 60 victories
• Roderic Dallas – Commanding Officer of No. 1 Squadron RNAS, ace with over 32 victories.
• Christopher Draper – 3 Wing 6 Naval, Naval 8 – "The Mad Major"
• Sir William Dickson – the only RNAS junior officer to later serve as either Chief of the Air Staff or Chief of the Defence Staff
• Stanley Goble – Commanded No. 5 Squadron, ace with ten victories, was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and the Distinguished Service Cross, later to become Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Australian Air Force
• Hugh Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster – Held rank of Temporary Commander RNVR while commanding 2 Squadron, RNACS
• Bert Hinkler – Australian aviation pioneer
• Robert Leckie – Canadian pilot who became an Air Marshal in the Royal Canadian Air Force
• Robert A. Little – Australia's top scoring ace of World War I, with 47 victories
• Oliver Locker-Lampson – Conservative Member of Parliament, commanded 15 Squadron (armoured cars) and led the Russian Armoured Car Division
• Anthony Jacques Mantle – awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for services over Turkey
• Robert McCance – later Professor of Experimental Medicine, Cambridge University
• Edwin Moon – British aviation pioneer, awarded the DSO. Forced landing in East Africa, led to capture by German forces
• Ivor Novello – British entertainer
• C R Samson – Initial commandant of the RFC Naval Wing, led the first armoured car units on the Western Front, later Air Officer Commanding RAF units in the Mediterranean
• Alexander MacDonald Shook, flying ace of Naval 4, and recipient of the Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross and Croix de Guerre
• Ivan Stedeford – industrialist
• Sir Frederick Sykes – Initial commander of RFC Military Wing, officer commanding RNAS at Gallipoli & later, controller-general of Civil Aviation and Governor of Bombay
• Adrian Tonks – flying ace of Naval 4, winner of two Distinguished Flying Crosses
• Reginald Alexander John Warneford – awarded the Victoria Cross
• Josiah Wedgwood – awarded the D.S.O., commanded the machine guns on the SS River Clyde
• James White – Naval 8 – ace