Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British Army officer who commanded the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from August 1915 to January 1918. The RFC was followed by the Royal Air Force (RAF), which was founded in March 1918.

Trenchard, who learnt to fly in 1912, eventually became Chief of the Air Staff in 1919. In that position he reorganised the Air Ministry and laid the foundations of the Royal Air Force.Orange, Vincent 2004. Trenchard, Hugh Montague, first Viscount Trenchard (1873–1956). In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press.Lyall, Gavin 2005. Marshal of the Royal Air Force the Viscount Trenchard. In Field Marshal the Lord Carver (ed). The War Lords: military commanders of the twentieth century. Leo Cooper. pp. 176 to 187. 

Trenchard was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1931 to 1935. The Commissioner is the highest ranking police officer in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that his authority is generally confined to Greater London.

 Career 
As a boy, Trenchard found learning difficult. He failed many tests and only just got into the British Army as an officer. Trenchard first went to India with the Army and then asked to go to South Africa because he wanted to fight in the Boer War. During the fighting, Trenchard was shot in the chest and became unable to walk properly because of damage to his back. He returned to England, where a doctor told him to go to Switzerland because the air was better there. Trenchard became bored and started to bobsleigh. After crashing on a fast bend, Trenchard was able to walk properly because his back was fixed. After his health got better still, Trenchard returned to the war in South Africa.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and joined the Royal Flying Corps. He became the second most important man at the Central Flying School in England and had several important jobs in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Trenchard was the man in charge of the Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he was the first man in charge of the Royal Air Force (RAF) for a short time. He then went back to France to take over the RAF bombing attacks on Germany. Winston Churchill put him back in charge of the RAF in 1919. Over the next ten years, Trenchard started training bases and made sure that the RAF was used to enforce the law in parts of the British Empire. In the 1930s, Trenchard was in charge of the Metropolitan Police, London's police force, and as an older man, he argued for keeping a large RAF. In modern times, some people say that Trenchard was one of the first people to argue for strategic bombing.

 References 

Other websites

 Air of authority - a history of RAF organisation - Marshal of the RAF The Viscount Trenchard of Wolfeton
 USAF Association Magazine - Trenchard at the creation 
 First World War.com - Who's Who: Hugh Trenchard
 History learning site - Hugh Trenchard
 British Ministry of Defence - Trenchard: father of the RAF 

Category:British military people
Category:Royal Air Force
Category:Order of Merit
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order
Category:British aviators