Geoffrey Salmond Air Chief Marshal Sir William Geoffrey Hanson Salmond KCB , KCMG , DSO ( 19 August 1878 – 27 April 1933 ) , commonly known as Sir Geoffrey Salmond , was a senior commander in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I . Remaining in the Royal Air Force after the War , he held senior appointments in the Middle East , Great Britain and India . In 1933 Salmond served as Chief of the Air Staff for only a matter of days before being taken ill and subsequently dying from cancer . Early life . Geoffrey Salmond was born the son of Major - General Sir William Salmond and Emma Mary Salmond ( née Hoyle ) . His siblings included a brother , John . He was educated at Wellington College in Berkshire before joining the Army . Royal Artillery service . Salmond joined the British Army , undertaking his officer training at Royal Military Academy Woolwich around 1897 . He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 23 June 1898 and saw active service during the Second Boer War . He took part in the relief of Ladysmith and the operations on the Tugela Heights . He received he Queen ' s Medal and seven clasps , then on 10 November 1900 he was sent to China and gained a medal for the operations during the Boxer Rebellion there . He was seconded to study Japanese on 2 May 1905 and promoted to captain on 2 December 1905 . He was then appointed Adjutant with the Royal Field Artillery on 4 February 1908 . Then in 1911 he attended the Staff College , Camberley . Royal Flying Corps service . Salmond was awarded Royal Aero Club Aviator ' s Certificate no . 421 on 18 February 1913 , and then joined the reserve of the Royal Flying Corps on 17 April 1913 . He became a staff office at the War Office on 31 July 1913 , a staff officer in the Directorate of Military Aeronautics on 31 August 1913 and then a staff officer at Headquarters Royal Flying Corps in France on 4 August 1914 . Salmond went on to take up the post of Officer Commanding No . 1 Squadron RFC on 26 January 1915 . In the First World War the squadron operated over the Western Front and Salmond and his squadron took part in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle , including the Battle of Hill 60 and the Battle of Aubers Ridge . He was appointed a wing commander on 18 August 1915 and sent to command the 5th Wing RFC in Egypt in November 1916 . He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 3 June 1916 . In July 1916 , Salmond was promoted to temporary brigadier - general and given command of the RFC in the Middle East . The Distinguished Service Order was conferred on him on 3 March 1917 : The action referred to was during the operations in Sinai at the end of 1916 . In this command he was responsible for providing air cooperation for General Jan Smuts ' s force in East Africa , for the forces in Salonika and Mesopotamia , for Allenby ' s conquest of Palestine , and for the RFC in India . He was promoted to the substantive rank of lieutenant colonel on 3 September 1918 . While holding the command of the Middle East , he had laid out an airway from Cairo to South Africa , clearing a chain of aerodromes in Central Africa . His idea was to send a demonstration flight or flights of RAF aircraft across Africa , thus providing the link of which Cecil Rhodes had dreamed in a Cape - to - Cairo railway . Salmond contemplated flights by both landplane and flying - boat . He was not destined to put his idea into execution , though his airway was used by Sir Pierre van Ryneveld and Sir Christopher Brand on their first flight to South Africa . He was appointed a Grand Officer of the Egyptian Order of the Nile on 9 November 1918 , a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 New Year Honours , and a Grand Commander of the Greek Order of the Redeemer on 5 April 1919 . He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George on 3 June 1919 and mentioned in despatches on account of his services in the Middle East on 28 June 1919 . Royal Air Force service . Salmond was awarded a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as a major - general in August 1919 ( shortly afterwards redesignated as an air vice marshal ) . On 23 February 1922 Salmond returned to Great Britain to take up the post of Director - General of Supply and Research at the Air Ministry . The following year , his post was renamed Air Member for Supply and Research and he remained as the head of Supply and Research for the RAF until late 1926 . He was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1926 Birthday Honours . Salmond ' s next appointment was as Air Officer Commanding India in December 1926 . He travelled to India by aircraft , making him the first officer to travel to an overseas command by air . He was promoted to air marshal on 1 July 1929 . In September 1931 , Salmond returned from India to take up command of the Air Defence of Great Britain organization which was responsible for British air defences , including both fighters and bombers . He was promoted to air chief marshal several months later on 1 January 1933 . On 1 April 1933 , Air Chief Marshal Salmond took over from his brother John as Chief of the Air Staff . At this stage he was already suffering from incurable cancer although it is unclear whether Salmond or his brother knew this at the time . Days later ( 5 April ) arrangements were announced for Sir John Salmond to resume the RAF ' s senior post temporarily . However , Geoffrey Salmond never recovered and he died on 27 April 1933 . Sir John Salmond resumed his duties as Chief of the Air Staff for several more weeks after Sir Geoffrey Salmond ' s death . Family . In 1910 he married Margaret Carr , daughter of William Carr ; they had a son and three daughters .