Charles Longcroft Air Vice Marshal Sir Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft , KCB , CMG , DSO , AFC ( 13 May 1883 – 20 February 1958 ) was a pilot and squadron commander in the Royal Flying Corps who went on to become a senior commander in the Royal Air Force . Early years . Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft was born on May 13 , 1883 in Cardiganshire , Wales , the third of four children born to Charles Edward Longcroft ( 1842 – 1892 ) and his wife , Catherine Alicia Holcombe . The Longcrofts had originated in Wiltshire but first rose to prominence as merchants in Hampshire in the 18th century . Charles ' somewhat distinguished great - grandfather , Captain Edward Longcroft RN ( c . 1750 - 1812 ) , had settled in Wales in the mid - 1780s after returning from a lengthy period of service in the West Indies during the American War of Independence . Charles ' father inherited the Llanina estate in 1888 but after his death only four years later the estate passed in trust to his nine - year old son . The entire history of the Longcroft family is recorded in " The Longcrofts : 500 Years of a British Family " by James Phillips - Evans ( Amazon , 2012 ) . Charles Longcroft was educated at Charterhouse , attended the Royal Military College Sandhurst before May 1903 and was then commissioned into the Welch Regiment . After obtaining his Royal Aero Club certificate in March 1912 , Longcroft was attached to the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers at his request . With the establishment of the Royal Flying Corps in the following month , he was seconded to the new Corps . World War I . By 1914 , Longcroft had been promoted to major and was appointed Officer Commanding No . 1 Squadron RFC . For the next year and a half , apart from a brief period as a supernumerary , Longcroft was the squadron commander of either No . 1 Squadron or No . 4 Squadron RFC . During the period 1915 to 1918 he was promoted several times and had command of the RFC ' s Training Wing , 2nd Wing , V Brigade and Training Division . Longcroft finished the war as General Officer Commanding the 3rd Brigade . Royal Air Force commander . With the establishment of the Royal Air Force on 1 April 1918 , Longcroft transferred to the new service on a temporary basis . However , just over a year later on 1 August 1919 he resigned his commission in the Welch Regiment and was awarded a permanent RAF commission in the rank of group captain . Just four days later he was promoted to air commodore . On 1 November 1919 , Longcroft was appointed as the first commandant of the World ' s first air academy , the RAF ( Cadet ) College at Cranwell . The first intake of cadets arrived on the following February and his post was upgraded to Air Officer Commanding RAF Cranwell . Longcroft continued as Air Officer Commanding until 1923 and he retired from the RAF at his own request on 2 November 1929 . Later years . On April 27 , 1921 he married the widowed Marjory Hepburn , née McKerrell - Brown , and together they had a son , Charles McKerrell Longcroft , who was born in 1926 . From 1932 , Charles A . H . Longcroft served as a Gentleman Usher of the Scarlet Rod in the Order of the Bath , before being appointed Registrar and Secretary of the Order of the Bath in 1948 . Charles was knighted in 1938 . Air Vice Marshal Sir Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft died in London on 20 February 1958 . His widow , Lady Longcroft , died in 1964 .