Air Vice Marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

Sir Charles Laverock Lambe, (10 May 1875 – 25 April 1953) was a distinguished officer in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

and a foundational commander in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF) on its creation in 1918. Lambe was one of the most senior officers with naval experience to serve in the 1920s RAF.

Biography

Joining the

in 1889, Lambe attended the training ship ''Britannia''. In 1897 he was promoted to lieutenant and served aboard HMS ''Magpie'', taking part in Rear Admiral

Rawson Rawson may refer to: Places *Rawson, Chubut, the capital of Chubut Province, Argentina *Rawson Department, Chubut, Argentina *Rawson Department, San Juan, Argentina **Villa Krause, also named Rawson, the capital city of the department * Rawson, Vic ...

's punitive expedition to Benin. Lambe later served at the Naval Ordnance Department as an assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance and Torpedoes. Promoted to Commander in 1908 he was again appointed an assistant to the Director of Naval Ordnance in 1913. In August 1914, Lambe was appointed as captain of the seaplane carrier HMS ''Hermes'', which sank after being torpedoed in October of the same year. At the start of August 1916, having just been promoted to wing captain, Lambe took up appointment as the officer commanding the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

's Dover Command which included RNAS units at Dunkirk. During his time at the Dover Command, Lambe's aircraft carried out bombing raids on the German submarine harbours at

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

. On 1 April 1918, Lambe was appointed General Officer Commanding the VII Brigade of the RAF. On 23 April, Lambe's VII Brigade carried out air attacks as part of the blocking of Zeebrugge and Ostend. On 9 May, Lambe was once again the air commander in a naval action, this time for the

Second Ostend Raid The Second Ostend Raid (officially known as Operation VS) was the later of two failed attempts made during the spring of 1918 by the United Kingdom's Royal Navy to block the channels leading to the Belgian port of Ostend as a part of its confl ...

. In 1919 Lambe was selected by

Sir Hugh Trenchard Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard, (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Air Force. He has been described as the "Father of the ...

to sit on the Air Council and in 1924 he was appointed commandant of the RAF's No. 1 School of Technical Training. In 1928 Lambe was appointed Air Officer Commanding Coastal Area (the forerunner of

Coastal Command RAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was founded in 1936, when the RAF was restructured into Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and played an important role during the Second World War. Maritime Aviation ...

) from where he retired in the rank of

air vice marshal Air vice-marshal (AVM) is a two-star air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes u ...

in 1931. Lambe died on 25 April 1953.

References

External links

Air of Authority—A History of RAF Organisation—AVM Lambe

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lambe, Charles Laverock 1875 births 1953 deaths Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force generals of World War I Royal Navy officers Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Knights of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium) Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1914–1918 (France) Foreign recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Royal Navy officers of World War I British military personnel of the Benin Expedition of 1897 Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal