Arthur Longmore Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Murray Longmore GCB , DSO ( 8 October 1885 – 10 December 1970 ) was an early naval aviator , before reaching high rank in the Royal Air Force . Biography . Born in Manly , New South Wales , Australia , the son of Charles Croker Longmore and Janet Murray , he was educated at Benges School , Hertford and Foster ' s Academy , Stubbington before entering Dartmouth Naval College . He was commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1904 . Having developed an interest in flying , he obtained his flying certificate in 1911 . That year , assisted by Oswald Short of Short Brothers , he devised a way of mounting streamlined air bags on the undercarriage struts and under the tail of an Short Improved S . 27 biplane bearing Admiralty number 38 — later often referred to as the " Short S . 38 " — and on 1 December 1911 , using the air bags for flotation , then - Lieutenant Longmore became the first person in the United Kingdom to take off from land and make a successful water landing in a seaplane when he landed Improved S . 27 No . 38 on the River Medway off Sheerness . Longmore joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1912 . He served in World War I as Officer Commanding No . 3 Squadron RNAS and then as Officer Commanding No . 1 Squadron RNAS before becoming an officer on the battlecruiser HMS " Tiger " . He obtained a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force in 1920 and was appointed Air Officer Commanding No . 3 Group later that year before being given command of the RAF Depot in 1921 . He was made Air Officer Commanding No . 7 Group in 1924 , Director of Equipment at the Air Ministry in 1925 and Chief Staff Officer at Headquarters Inland Area in 1929 . Subsequent appointments included Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in December 1929 , Air Officer Commanding Inland Area in 1933 and Air Officer Commanding Coastal Area ( which was renamed RAF Coastal Command under his leadership ) in 1934 . He went on to be Commandant of the Imperial Defence College in 1936 . The outbreak of the Second World War found Longmore an Air Chief Marshal and in charge of RAF Training Command . On 2 April 1940 , he was appointed Air Officer Commanding in the Middle East . He did not long enjoy the full confidence of Winston Churchill in that position and was relieved of his command in May 1941 . His last role before his formal retirement in 1942 was as Inspector - General of the RAF . The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography says the following about Longmore during the first few months of 1941 : Longmore ' s constant demands for reinforcements resulted in some unwelcome attention from Churchill , who hated pessimists and senior commanders who complained about their lack of resources . After some acerbic correspondence , in which Churchill accused Longmore of failing to make proper use of the manpower and aircraft he had , Longmore was recalled to London in May 1941 . He was succeeded in the Middle East by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder . In retirement he was Vice - Chairman of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission . Longmore ’ s memoirs , " From Sea to Sky 1910 - 1945 " , were published in 1946 . Family . In 1913 Longmore married Marjorie Maitland , the daughter of William James Maitland C . I . E . ; they had three sons and a daughter . One of their sons , Wing Commander Richard Maitland Longmore OBE , was killed in action on 4 October 1943 , in the course of an attack on a U - boat . References . Bibliography .