Grahame Donald Air Marshal Sir David Grahame Donald KCB DFC AFC RAF ( 27 July 1891 – 23 December 1976 ) , often known as Sir Grahame Donald , was a Royal Naval Air Service pilot during World War I , a senior Royal Air Force officer between the wars and a senior RAF commander during World War II . In February 1939 , Donald was appointed Director of Organisation at the Air Ministry . He was also a rugby union international having represented Scotland twice in 1914 . Early life . Grahame Donald was the son of Dr David Donald , and was educated at Dulwich College where he played in a school team that featured five future international rugby footballers . From Dulwich he went on to University College , Oxford and from there entered the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve in 1914 as a surgeon probationer . He served aboard a hospital ship , torpedo boat and a destroyer before transferring to the RNAS in 1916 . Rugby career . Whilst at Dulwich College he played in an unbeaten first XV in 1909 which contained five future internationals dubbed the ' Famous Five ' . These five would all go on to play in the 1913 Varsity match , ( and also produced the captains of both Oxford and Cambridge in 1919 ) , and all served in the First World War . They were Eric Loudoun - Shand and Grahame Donald who went on to play for Scotland , W . D . Doherty who went on to play for and captain Ireland , J . E . Greenwood who went on to play for and captain England and the record - breaking Cyril Lowe . From Oxford , Grahame Donald was selected in 1914 to play for Scotland , who he represented as a prop against Wales on 7 February , and Ireland on 28 February . His participation in the First World War and subsequent career in the military ended his international rugby career . Military career . Donald also became famous for his miraculous escape from death having fallen from his Sopwith Camel at in 1917 . On that fateful summer ' s afternoon he attempted a new manoeuvre in his Sopwith Camel and flew the machine up and over , and as he reached the top of his loop , hanging upside down , his safety belt snapped and he fell out . He was not wearing a parachute as a matter of policy . Incredibly , the Camel had continued its loop downwards , and Donald landed on its top wing . He grabbed it with both hands , hooked one foot into the cockpit and wrestled himself back in , struggled to take control , and executed " an unusually good landing " . In an interview given 55 years later he explained , " The first 2 , 000 feet passed very quickly and terra firma looked damnably ' firma ' . As I fell I began to hear my faithful little Camel somewhere nearby . Suddenly I fell back onto her . " He was appointed Officer Commanding No . 205 Squadron in 1920 , Officer Commanding No . 3 Squadron and Station Commander at RAF Leuchars in 1921 before he moved on with his new squadron to RAF Gosport the following year . He joined the Directing Staff at the RAF Staff College , Andover in 1924 and became Officer Commanding No . 201 Squadron in 1928 . He went on to be Officer Commanding the School of Naval Co - operation in 1929 , Officer Commanding No 1 ( Indian Wing ) Station at Kohat in India and then rejoined the Directing Staff , RAF Staff College in 1935 . After a tour as Instructor at the Imperial Defence College in 1937 he became Director - General of Organisation , a post he held at the start of World War II . He was made Deputy Air Member for Supply and Organisation in 1941 and Air Officer Commanding - in - Chief at Maintenance Command in 1942 before retiring in 1947 . Personal life . His first marriage was to Gwyneth Martin in 1916 . After her death he married Ailsa Stevenson in October 1947 . References .