page_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
section_title: Later years as Chief of the Air Staff
hierarchical_section_title: Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard / Between the wars / Chief of the Air Staff (2nd appointment) / Later years as Chief of the Air Staff
caption_attribution_description: Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Lord Trenchard in RAF full dress. Formal portrait.
context_page_description: Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the Royal Air Force."
  During his formative years, Trenchard struggled academically, failing many examinations and only just succeeding in meeting the minimum standard for commissioned service in the British Army. As a young infantry officer, Trenchard served in India and with the outbreak of the Boer War, he volunteered for service in South Africa. While fighting the Boers, Trenchard was critically wounded and as a result of his injury, he lost a lung, was partially paralysed and returned to Great Britain. On medical advice, Trenchard travelled to Switzerland to recuperate and boredom saw him taking up bobsleighing. After a heavy crash, Trenchard found that his paralysis was gone and that he could walk unaided. Following further recuperation, Trenchard returned to active service in South Africa.
context_section_description: By late 1924 the creation of the reserve air force, known as the Auxiliary Air Force, meant that Trenchard was able to modestly expand the R.A.F.'s strength, and over the next two years, 25 auxiliary squadrons were created. It was during this period that he oversaw the introduction of the short-service commission scheme. which proved to be useful in providing some of the regular manning on the new squadrons. He also instigated the University Air Squadron scheme, and in 1925 the first three U.A.S. squadrons were formed at Cambridge, London and Oxford.
  Since the early 1920s Trenchard had supported the development of a flying bomb, and by 1927 a prototype, code-named "Larynx", was successfully tested. However, development costs were not insignificant and in 1928, when he applied for further funding, the Committee of Imperial Defence and the Cabinet discontinued the project. Following the British failure to win the Schneider Trophy in 1925, Trenchard ensured that finances were available for an R.A.F. team, with which the High Speed Flight was formed in preparation for the 1927 race. After the British won in 1927, he continued to use Air Ministry funds to support the race, including purchasing two Supermarine S.6 aircraft which won the race in 1929. He was criticised for this by figures in HM Treasury for wasting money.
  On 1 January 1927, Trenchard was promoted from air chief marshal to marshal of the Royal Air Force, becoming the first person to hold the R.A.F.'s highest rank. The following year he began to feel that he had achieved all he could as Chief of the Air Staff and that he should give way to a younger man, and he offered his resignation to the Cabinet in late 1928, although it was not initially accepted. Around the same time as Trenchard was considering his future the British Legation and some European diplomatic staff based in Kabul were cut off from the outside world as a result of the civil war in Afghanistan. After word of the crisis had reached London, the Foreign Secretary Austen Chamberlain sent for Trenchard, who assured him that the R.A.F. would be able to rescue the stranded civilians. The Kabul Airlift began on Christmas Eve and took nine weeks to rescue around 600 people.
  Trenchard continued as Chief of the Air Staff until 1 January 1930. Immediately after he had relinquished his appointment, he was created Baron Trenchard, of Wolfeton in the County of Dorset, entering the House of Lords, becoming the RAF's first peer. Looking back over Trenchard's time as Chief of the Air Staff, while he had successfully preserved the fledgling R.A.F., his emphasis on the Air Force providing defence at a comparatively low cost had led to a stagnation and even deterioration in the quality of the service's fighting equipment.
caption: Trenchard as a Marshal of the RAF wearing full dress with greatcoat
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