Charles Rumney Samson Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson CMG , DSO & Bar , AFC ( 8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931 ) was a British naval aviation pioneer . He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft from a moving ship . He also commanded the first British armoured vehicles used in combat . Transferring to the Royal Air Force on its creation in 1918 , Samson held command of several groups in the immediate post - War period and the 1920s . Early life . Samson was born in Crumpsall , Manchester on 8 July 1883 the son of Charles Leopold Samson , a solicitor , and his wife Margaret Alice ( née Rumney ) . Early naval career . Samson entered HMS " Britannia " as a cadet in 1896 , before becoming a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1898 . In the 1901 Census he is listed as a midshipman aboard the battleship HMS " Victorious " . He was promoted Sub - Lieutenant in 1902 and the following year served on HMS " Pomone " in the Persian Gulf and Somaliland . While serving as an officer on boys ' training ships , he was promoted to Lieutenant on 30 September 1904 . In 1906 Samson was appointed Officer Commanding Torpedo Boat No . 81 and in February 1908 he was sent to HMS " Commonwealth " . The following year he was appointed First Lieutenant on HMS " Philomel " serving in the Persian Gulf and in the autumn of 1910 he transferred to HMS " Foresight " , again serving as the ship ' s First Lieutenant . Naval aviation . In 1911 he was selected as one of the first four Royal Navy officers to receive pilot training , obtaining his Royal Aero Club certificate on 25 April 1911 after completing only 71 minutes in the air . He completed flying training at navy ' s school at Eastchurch before being appointed Officer Commanding of Naval Air Station Eastchurch in October 1911 . In January 1912 he was promoted to acting Commander . The following April he was appointed Officer Commanding the Naval Flying School , still at Eastchurch . Samson took part in various early naval aviation experiments , including the development of navigation light s and bomb sight s . He was the first British pilot to take off from a ship , on 10 January 1912 , from a foredeck ramp mounted on the battleship HMS " Africa " , which was anchored in the river Medway , flying a Short S . 27 . On 9 May 1912 , using the same ramp and aircraft , he became the first pilot to take off from a moving ship , the battleship HMS " Hibernia " in Weymouth Bay . He repeated this feat on 4 July 1912 from the battleship HMS " London " while " London " was under way , using the same ramp and aircraft . When the Royal Flying Corps was formed in May 1912 , Samson took command of its Naval Wing , and led the development of aerial wireless communications , bomb - and torpedo - dropping , navigational techniques , and night flying . In 1914 the Royal Navy separated the Naval Wing from the Royal Flying Corps , naming it the Royal Naval Air Service ( RNAS ) . In July Samson was appointed Officer Commanding the Eastchurch ( Mobile ) Squadron which was renamed No . 3 Squadron RNAS by September 1914 . In 1914 , while Samson was in command of the Royal Naval Air Station at Eastchurch , he led a flight in the Naval Review at Spithead . In an effort to increase the popularity of flying in the navy , Samson had his pilots offer rides to anyone who was interested . World War I . When World War I broke out , Samson took the Eastchurch RNAS Squadron to France , where it supported Allied ground forces along the French and Belgian frontiers . In the late summer of 1914 , with too few aircraft at his disposal , Samson instead had his men patrol the French and Belgian countryside in the privately owned cars some of them had taken to war . The first patrol comprised two cars , nine men , and one machine gun . Inspired by the success of the Belgians ' experience of armoured cars , Samson had two RNAS cars , a Mercedes and a Rolls - Royce , armoured . These vehicles had only partial protection , with a single machine gun firing backwards , and were the first British armoured vehicles to see action . Within a month most of Samson ' s cars had been armed and some armoured . These were joined by further cars which had been armoured in Britain with hardened steel plates at Royal Navy workshops . The force was also equipped with some trucks which had been armoured and equipped with loopholes so that the Royal Marines carried in them could fire their rifles in safety . This was the start of the RNAS Armoured Car Section . Aggressive patrolling by Samson ' s improvised force in the area between Dunkirk and Antwerp did much to prevent German cavalry divisions from carrying out effective reconnaissance , and with the help of Belgian Post Office employees who used the intact telephone system to report German movements , he was able to probe deeply into German occupied territory . Closer to Dunkirk , Samson ' s force assisted Allied units in contact with the Germans , and at other times made use of their mobility and machine guns to exploit open flanks , cover retreats , and race German forces to important areas . Samson ' s aircraft also bombed the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf and Cologne , and by the end of 1914 , when mobile warfare on the Western Front ended and trench warfare took its place , his squadron had been awarded four Distinguished Service Order s , among them his own , and he was given a special promotion and the rank of Commander . He spent the next few months bombing gun positions , submarine depots , and seaplane sheds on the Belgian coast . In March 1915 Samson was sent to the Dardanelles with No 3 Squadron ( later No 3 Wing ) ; it was based on the island of Tenedos and , together with seaplanes from HMS " Ark Royal " , initially provided the only Allied air cover . On arrival , it was found that out of 30 aircraft that had been sent in crates , only 5 were serviceable ( BE2 s and a Nieuport 10 ) . His squadron pioneered the use of radio in directing the fire of battleships and photo - reconnaissance . Samson flew many missions himself and on 25 April at the Landing at Cape Helles , he reported that " the sea was absolutely red with blood to 50 yards out " at " Sed - el - Barr " ( " V Beach " ) . On 27 May , Samson attacked the German submarine " U - 21 " which had just sunk HMS Majestic ; when he ran out of bombs he resorted to firing his rifle at it . In June , a temporary airstrip was constructed at Cape Hellas ; Samson became well known for waving cheerily to the Allied troops in the trenches below . On one occasion , he bombed a Turkish staff car but only succeeded in breaking the windscreen ; one of the occupants was Mustafa Kemal , the charismatic Turkish commander and later founder of the Turkish Republic . In August , Samson ' s wing was moved to a new airfield at Imbros where it was joined by No 2 Wing under the overall command of Colonel Frederick Sykes . who had been given the naval rank of Wing Captain with three years ' seniority . Sykes had previously written a critical report of the Gallipoli air operations , which had caused Samson to lobby against Sykes ; however , Samson loyally served under Sykes until he was recalled to London in November . On 14 May 1916 , Samson was given command of HMS " Ben - my - Chree " , a former Isle of Man passenger steamer which had been converted into a seaplane carrier . Based at Port Said , he patrolled the coasts of Palestine and Syria , sending his aircraft on reconnaissance missions and bombing Turkish positions , often flying himself on operations . On 2 June , Samson took his ship through the Suez Canal to Aden , where he personally led a six - day bombing campaign . After silencing Turkish guns at Perim , " Ben My Chree " headed to Jidda where on 15 June , her aircraft operated in support of an attack by Arab forces led by Faisal , son of Hussein bin Ali , Sharif of Mecca ; Samson lost the heel of his boot as well as various pieces of his seaplane to ground fire . The Turks surrendered the next day . Further operations off the coast of Palestine followed ; on 26 July , Samson and his observer Lt Wedgewood Benn destroyed a train carrying 1 , 600 troops with a 16 lb bomb . In almost continuous action through the rest of 1916 , Samson received a signal from the Admiralty asking why " Ben - my - Chree " had used so much ammunition ; he replied " that there was unfortunately a war on " . In January 1917 he sailed to Castellorizo to carry out joint operations with the French , and in the harbour there the " Ben My Chree " was sunk on 11 January by Turkish gunfire . A subsequent Court - martial acquitted Samson and the crew of all responsibility and commended them for their behaviour . His two escort ships , already equipped to carry a few seaplanes , were fitted out for independent air operations , and from Aden and later Colombo , he patrolled the Indian Ocean for enemy commerce raiders . From November 1917 until the end of the War , Samson was in command of an aircraft group at Great Yarmouth responsible for anti - submarine and anti - Zeppelin operations over the North Sea , during which time his group shot down five Zeppelins . In order to bring fighter aircraft into action near the enemy coasts , he devised lighters which could be towed behind naval vessels and used as take - off platforms by fighter aircraft . This system later led to the destruction of a Zeppelin by one of Samson ' s team . In October 1918 the group became 73 Wing of the new 4 Group based at Felixstowe , as part of the Royal Air Force . Samson became commanding officer of this group , and in August 1919 gave up his naval commission and received instead a permanent commission in the RAF with the rank of Group Captain . Postwar . During 1920 Samson served as Chief Staff Officer in the Coastal Area , and in 1921 became Air Officer Commanding of the RAF units in the Mediterranean , based at Malta . In 1922 he was promoted to Air Commodore and given command of 6 Fighter Group at Kenley . In June 1926 he became Chief Staff Officer of the RAF ' s , Middle East Command , and organized and led the first flight of an RAF formation over Africa from Cairo to the Cape of Good Hope , which involved setting up and supplying bases and surveying the unknown route . The flight in 1929 - 30 , which was made by four Vickers Victoria F biplanes , was a success . He remained with the Middle East command until August 1927 . Samson resigned his commission in 1929 and died of heart failure at his home near Salisbury , Wiltshire , on 5 February 1931 . He was buried at Putney on 10 February .