Gordon Herbert Vasse Air Commodore Gordon Herbert Vasse CBE RAF , ( 23 April 1899 – 26 March 1965 ) , was a fighter pilot in the First World War and a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War and into the late 1940s and early 1950s . During most of the Second World War he was Director of Air Tactics for the RAF . In his final appointment Vasse also served as the seventh Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps . Vasse was chosen as one of the RAF ’ s principal representatives to the funeral of King George VI in 1952 . Service history . Early career . In 1917 Vasse joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a trainee pilot in the rank of Probationery Flight Officer and was later promoted to Flight Sub - Lieutenant . When the RAF was formed in March 1918 Vasse transferred to the new service in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant ( Pilot ) and was rapidly promoted to Pilot Officer and then Flying Officer . After seeing active combat duty as a fighter pilot in the latter stages of the First World War Vasse was transferred to the unemployed officer list in September 1919 . Back to the RAF . In October 1921 he rejoined the RAF on a short service commission in the rank of Flying Officer and posted as a supernumerary pilot at the RAF Central Depot . After a further supernumerary posting to the School of Technical Training he was posted to No . 6 Squadron RAF as a pilot in April 1923 . After a short one month period as a supernumerary at the Central Depot over the Christmas of 1925 he was granted a permanent commission in January 1926 and posted as an instructor to the RAF ’ s Air Armament and Gunnery School . Promoted to Flight Lieutenant in July 1927 , in March 1929 he was appointed Armaments Officer at the RAF North Coates gunnery practice range in Lincolnshire where he remained until November 1930 . Returning to flying duties as a flight commander with No . XV Squadron RAF on 1 November 1930 he remained with the squadron until February 1933 , apart from a two - month period while suffering from an illness that prevented him from flying . In November he was posted overseas firstly as Armaments Officer for No . 3 ( Indian ) Wing RAF and later as Staff Armament Officer at Headquarters No . 1 ( Indian ) Group . Returning to the UK in 1936 he was appointed as a Staff Instructor at the Air Armament School on promotion to Squadron Leader . After a short armament officer posting to RAF Northolt he was promoted to Wing Commander and granted his first command as Officer Commanding the Air Fighting Development Unit ( AFDU ) at RAF Duxford . Commands . He would remain at Duxford , becoming Station Commander there , on promotion to Group Captain , until July 1941 when he was appointed Deputy Director of the RAF Air Tactics department . In October the following year he became Director of the department in the rank of Acting Air Commodore . In July 1945 he was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in the King ' s Birthday Honours . Between 1944 and 1945 Vasse filled a number of senior appointments in quick succession including Deputy Senior Air Staff Officer ( SASO ) at Headquarters Air Command South East Asia , SASO No . 221 Group RAF and SASO HQ RAF Burma . As the war ended Vasse was serving as AOC RAF Seletar in Singapore . Returning to post war England in the Autumn of 1946 Vasse served in a number of AOC appointments with No . 21 Group RAF , No . 25 Group and latterly No . 63 Group where he remained from March 1948 until March 1951 . His rank as an Air Commodore was confirmed on 1 July 1947 . Royal Observer Corps . In March 1951 Vasse was posted to RAF Bentley Priory and took over as the seventh Commandant Royal Observer Corps from Air Commodore Sir Richard Bowen Jordan KCB DFC ADC RAF . Vasse was able to bring his long expertise in air tactics to bear on the operational systems used by the ROC in tracking aircraft . He also oversaw the expansion of the Corps ’ coverage to include Northern Ireland for the first time , establishing No . 31 Group ROC with its headquarters in Lisburn . Vasse was selected by the RAF to be one of its principal representatives at the funeral of King George VI at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle . His first task after the funeral was to formally invite Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to become the Corps ’ new Air Commodore in Chief , an appointment she readily accepted . Air Commodore Vasse ’ s attention was then directed at the growing problem of the Corps tracking the newly introduced high speed jet aircraft . He realised it would need a revised operational layout to maintain reporting efficiency . The solution addressed a consolidation of group boundaries to match RAF Fighter Command sectors and crucial improvements in track handover across group boundaries . The reorganisation of groups reduced their number and Vasse oversaw the closing of the wartime operational centres at Maidstone , Lincoln , Bury St Edmunds , Cambridge , Gloucester , Cardiff , Wrexham and Dunfermline , several of which would reopen three years later . The dual centres at York were combined into a single establishment . Posts were rearranged so that some clusters now straddled group boundaries and reported to both centres to improve fast jet track handovers between groups . Retirement . The Royal Observer Corps was Vasse ’ s final service appointment and he retired from the RAF on 26 April 1954 and handed over command of the ROC to Air Commodore J H T Simpson DSO AFC . Vasse was due to return to RAF Bentley Priory as a principal guest of honour at the Royal Review of the Royal Observer Corps by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in July 1966 , but sadly he died before the event .