Air Commodore Finlay Crerar, (23 March 1904 – 12 August 1965) was a senior
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) an ...
officer during the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
who served as the fourth Commandant of the
Royal Observer Corps
The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 Decembe ...
(ROC). He led the ROC through the final two years of the war and the difficult period of the
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb (german: Vergeltungswaffe 1 "Vengeance Weapon 1") was an early cruise missile. Its official Ministry of Aviation (Nazi Germany), Reich Aviation Ministry () designation was Fi 103. It was also known to the Allies as the buz ...
raids on southern England.
Service history
Royal Air Force
On 15 June 1937 Crerar was granted an Auxiliary Air Force commission in the immediate rank of
squadron leader
Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is als ...
and was appointed as the first officer commanding of No. 612 (County of Aberdeen) Squadron Auxiliary Air Force. In November 1939 he was promoted to
acting wing commander
Wing commander (Wg Cdr in the RAF, the IAF, and the PAF, WGCDR in the RNZAF and RAAF, formerly sometimes W/C in all services) is a senior commissioned rank in the British Royal Air Force and air forces of many countries which have historical ...
and appointed as station commander of
RAF Dyce
Aberdeen International Airport ( gd, Port-adhair Eadar-nàiseanta Obar Dheathain) is an international airport, located in the Dyce suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, approximately northwest of Aberdeen city centre. A total of just under 3.1&nbs ...
. His status was amended to
temporary wing commander on 1 September 1940. On 17 February 1942 he was appointed as the operations officer at Headquarters Maintenance Command RAF, where he would later be promoted to
group captain.
Royal Observer Corps
Crerar was promoted to
air commodore and appointed commandant of the Royal Observer Corps on 23 June 1943
when his predecessor, Air Commodore
Geoffrey Ambler moved across the road at
RAF Bentley Priory
RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was the headquarters of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War. During the war, two enemy bomb ...
to
RAF Fighter Command
RAF Fighter Command was one of the commands of the Royal Air Force. It was formed in 1936 to allow more specialised control of fighter aircraft. It served throughout the Second World War. It earned near-immortal fame during the Battle of Brita ...
as deputy senior air staff officer (DSASO). Crerar immediately generated controversy within the ROC when his first decision was to make retirement at age fifty mandatory for all centre personnel, including the duty officers. No similar changes were to be applied to post personnel, many of whom were already in their 70s and even 80s. The furore rumbled on for the next few years, but the new policy was to remain extant until after the end of the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. Crerar's vision of a younger, fitter and more flexible centre workforce became the norm during hostilities, although many forcibly 'retired' centre personnel immediately re-enlisted on local posts.
During Crerar's command the ROC played a major part in combating the German hit-and-run raids on the south and south-east coasts of Great Britain. He ordered a large number of additional satellite spotter posts to be quickly constructed along the coast giving a more complete low-level coverage. This was vital as radar could not pick up all the low-flying aircraft deliberately under flying the radar beams. For the first time air raid warnings to most coastal towns were sounded directly from the ROC posts to speed up the advance notification of raids.
Flying bombs
The Defence Committee had been expecting a new phase of enemy air activity which became known as the "flying bomb". Some doubt had been expressed as to the ability of the Corps to deal with this threat, Air Commodore Crerar assured the committee that the ROC could again rise to the occasion and prove its alertness and flexibility. He oversaw plans for handling the new threat, codenamed "Operation Totter".
Observers at the coast post of Dymchurch identified the very first of these weapons and within seconds of their report the defences were in action. This new weapon gave the ROC much additional work both at posts and operations rooms. RAF controllers actually took their radio equipment to the two ROC operations rooms at Horsham and Maidstone and vectored fighters direct from the ROC's plotting tables. The critics who had said that the Corps would be unable to handle the fast-flying jet aircraft were answered when these aircraft on their first operation were actually controlled entirely by using ROC information and Air Commodore Crerar's optimism was vindicated.
Handing over command
In November 1945 Crerar handed over command of the ROC to Air Commodore
Percy Bernard, 5th Earl of Bandon
Air Chief Marshal Percy Ronald Gardner Bernard, 5th Earl of Bandon, (30 August 1904 – 8 February 1979) was an Anglo-Irish aristocrat who served as a senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the mid-20th century. He was a squadron, station an ...
who was to oversee both the temporary stand down of the Corps in the immediate post war period and its reactivation for the
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
.
Later appointments
In November 1945 Crerar was appointed as the inspector of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force, and in February 1952 he became
aide-de-camp to
King George VI just before the King's death. On 10 June 1952 he became aide-de-camp to
Queen Elizabeth II, an appointment he held until his retirement from the RAF in 1957.
[
]
During retirement
On retirement in March 1957 Crerar accepted the appointments as honorary air commodore with two Auxiliary Air Force squadrons, No. 612 (County of Aberdeen) Sqn RAuxAF and No. 2612 (County of Aberdeen) Field Sqn RAuxAF Regiment. In January 1961 he also became honorary air commodore for No. 3612 (County of Aberdeen) Fighter Control Unit, RAuxAF.[
]
References
External links
Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Commodore F Crerar
{{DEFAULTSORT:Crerar, Finlay
Royal Air Force officers
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
People of the Royal Observer Corps
Honorary air commodores
1904 births
1965 deaths