page_title: Robert Brooke-Popham
section_title: Career progression
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Brooke-Popham / RAF service during the inter-war years / Career progression
caption_attribution_description: English: The first RAF Staff College course at Andover.Front Row (shown left to right): Flight Lieutenant C B Dick-Cleland (Adjutant), Wing Commander R E C Peirse, Squadron Leader B E Sutton (Directing Staff), Wing Commander C H K Edmonds (Directing Staff), Air Commodore H R M Brooke- Popham (Commandant) (shown with dog Jane on lap), Group Captain P B Joubert de la Ferté (Directing Staff), Wing Commander W R Freeman ( Directing Staff), Flight Lieutenant C H HaywardMiddle Row: Squadron Leader H S Powell, Squadron Leader C W H Pulford Squadron Leader E B Beauman, Squadron Leader C F A Portal Squadron Leader L L MacLean, Flight Lieutenant R M Drummond, Flight Lieutenant E B C BettsBack Row: Flight Lieutenant N W Wadham, Flight Lieutenant J B Cole-Hamilton, Flight Lieutenant W B Farrington, Flight Lieutenant G M Lawson, Flight Lieutenant H S Kerby, Squadron Leader K R Park, Flight Lieutenant W R D Acland
context_page_description: Air Chief Marshal Sir Henry Robert Moore Brooke-Popham, GCVO, KCB, CMG, DSO, AFC was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. During the First World War he served in the Royal Flying Corps as a wing commander and senior staff officer. Remaining in the new Royal Air Force after the war, Brooke-Popham was the first commandant of its Staff College at Andover and later held high command in the Middle East. He was Governor of Kenya in the late 1930s. Most notably, Brooke-Popham was Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command until replaced a few weeks before Singapore fell to Japanese troops.
context_section_description: From 1919 to 1921, Brooke-Popham served as Director of Research at the Air Ministry and in November 1921 he was tasked with establishing the RAF Staff College at Andover and he became its first commandant on 1 April 1922.
  In 1925 the Air Defence of Great Britain had been created and it was charged with defending the United Kingdom from aerial attack. The following year, Brooke-Popham was posted as Air Officer Commanding (AOC) the Fighting Area within the Air Defence of Great Britain and he served in this capacity for the next two years. During his time as AOC Fighting Area, Brooke-Popham oversaw the establishment of a chain of huge concrete mirrors which were designed for acoustic early warning and he received a knighthood in 1927.
  On 1 November 1928, Brooke-Popham was appointed AOC Iraq Command. This high-profile position put him in charge of all British forces in Iraq and, when the post of high commissioner was vacant, he acted in that capacity as well. The start of 1931 saw Brooke-Popham promoted to air marshal and then posted as the first RAF officer to serve as Commandant of the Imperial Defence College. Two years later in 1933, he returned to the Air Defence of Great Britain, this time in the senior post of Air Officer Commander-in-Chief. Later that year Brooke-Popham received the honorary appointment of Principal Aide-de-Camp to the King. In 1935 he left the Air Defence of Great Britain to become the Inspector-General of the RAF. This was, however, a short-lived appointment and he was posted later that year.
caption: The first RAF Staff College course at Andover. Brooke-Popham (Commandant) is seated in the front and centre with dog on lap.
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