George Beamish Air Marshal Sir George Robert Beamish , KCB , CBE , RAF ( 29 April 1905 – 13 November 1967 ) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force from the Second World War to his retirement in the late 1950s . Prior to World War II , whilst Beamish was in the RAF , he was a keen rugby union player , playing for Leicester and being capped 26 times for Ireland and was selected for the 1930 British Lions tour . He was also the chairman of the RAF Rugby Union and an Air Force rugby selector . Personal history . George Beamish was born in Dunmanway , Ireland on 29 April 1905 . He attended the Coleraine Academical Institution and he and his three brothers went on to join the RAF . From 1923 Beamish attended the RAF College , Cranwell as a flight cadet and after he was commissioned in late 1924 , Beamish was posted as a pilot on No . 100 Squadron . In 1934 he was made Flight Commander of No . 45 Squadron and in 1936 he was made Squadron Leader . After attending RAF Staff College in 1937 he was attached to the Air Staff . In 1939 he was made Senior Operations Officer for Palestine and Transjordan . On 17 May 1941 he was appointed senior RAF officer on Crete overseeing the reception of units after their withdrawal from Greece . To aid him in this task he was allocated two RAF squadrons from Egypt , 30 and 205 to bolster the fighters already stationed on the island . But following the German Invasion of Crete this action turned into the defence of the island . Unable to convince the Army Commander of the need to defeat the invaders from the air , the island fell and Beamish ordered the RAF squadrons to withdraw to Egypt on 19 May . Beamish remained on Crete to assist General Freyberg , both men escaping the island aboard a Sunderland in late May . He was then appointed Senior Air Staff Officer first at Western Desert Air Force , then at North African Tactical Air Forces and then at Second Tactical Air Force before progressing to the roles of Air Officer Commanding No . 44 Group and then No . 45 Group . After the War he became President of the RAF Selection Board and then Director of Weapons at the Air Ministry in 1947 . He went on to be Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1949 , Air Officer Commanding , Air Headquarters Iraq in 1950 and Director - General of Personnel in 1952 . His last appointments were as Air Officer Commanding - in - Chief at Transport Command in 1954 and Air Officer Commanding - in - Chief at Technical Training Command in 1955 . In 1955 , Beamish was appointed KCB . He retired in 1958 . In 1962 he was made High Sheriff of County Londonderry . Rugby career . Beamish won his first international cap in 1925 , at the age of 19 , representing Ireland in that year ' s Home Nations Championship in a six all draw with England . At the time he was representing Coleraine at club level . Beamish was then selected for the remaining games of the tournament , a home loss to Scotland and an impressive 19 - 3 win over Wales . During the 1927 - 28 season , and now playing club rugby for Leicester , Beamish was approached to play for invitational touring team the Barbarians . In 1928 , nearly three years after his last international game , Beamish was recalled to the Ireland team . From the first game of the 1928 Five Nations Championship until the end of the 1933 tournament Beamish was rarely out of the squad . In 1930 Beamish was selected for the British Isles team on their tour of Australia and New Zealand . He played in all five Tests and 17 of the regional matches , scoring two tries , one each against Otago and a joint Marlborough / Nelson Bay team . After the British tour Beamish returned to the Ireland squad for the 1931 Championship playing in all four games . He was then selected as Ireland team captain when the team faced the 1931 touring South African team in Dublin . He retained the captaincy for the 1932 Home Nations Championship , and steered Ireland to their first Championship win for twenty years . The 1933 campaign was Beamish ' s last for Ireland , playing in all three games and captaining the team in a win over Wales . During his career , Beamish also played club rugby for London Irish and was captain of the RAF rugby side . George Beamish is also credited with getting the green of Ireland represented in the kit currently worn by the British and Irish Lions . On the 1930 tour to New Zealand , of which he was a member , the tourists wore what was by then the standard blue jerseys . These themselves caused some controversy because the New Zealand side , by then already synonymous with the appellation " All Blacks " , had an all black kit that clashed with the Lions ' blue . After much reluctance and debate , but having to defer to the rugby custom of accommodating guests , New Zealand agreed to change for the Tests and the All Blacks became the All Whites for the first time . Also on that tour , a delegation led by George Beamish expressed their displeasure at the fact that whilst the blue of Scotland , white of England and red of Wales were represented in the strip there was no green for Ireland . A green flash was added to the socks , which from 1938 became a green turnover and that has remained a feature of the strip ever since . References .