page_title: Pierre van Ryneveld
section_title: Military career
hierarchical_section_title: Pierre van Ryneveld / Military career
caption_attribution_description: English: (L-R) Lt Col van Ryneveld with Flt Lt Quintin Brand, February 1920, standing in front of Vickers Vimy, G-UABA, the "Silver Queen", before setting out on a England to South Africa Flight.
context_page_description: General Sir Hesperus Andrias van Ryneveld, KBE, CB, DSO, MC, known as Pierre van Ryneveld, was a South African military commander. He was the founding commander of the South African Air Force.
context_section_description: Van Ryneveld began his military career in the First World War, in which he served in the Royal Flying Corps and later the Royal Air Force. For his service in the war, Van Ryneveld was awarded the Distinguished Service Order and Military Cross, Mentioned in Despatches, and presented with the Chevalier of the Legion of Honour from the French government.
  After the war, Van Ryneveld was called back to South Africa by the Prime Minister Jan Smuts in order to set up the South African Air Force (SAAF). He flew back home, across Africa, in a Vickers Vimy – a pioneering feat for which he and his co-pilot Quintin Brand were both knighted.
  Colonel van Ryneveld established the SAAF in 1920, and directed it until 1933, when he was promoted to Chief of the General Staff (CGS), in command of the Union Defence Forces. However, for the next four years the SAAF remained under Van Ryneveld's direct control as no one was appointed as the Air Force's director until 1937.
  Van Ryneveld served as CGS for sixteen years, including the whole of the Second World War. He retired in 1949.
caption: (L-R) Lt Col van Ryneveld with First Lt Quintin Brand, February 1920, in front of Vickers Vimy Silver Queen, before their England to South Africa flight
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