Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer originating from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. An air chief marshal is equivalent to an Admir ...

Sir Edmund Cuthbert Hudleston, (30 December 1908 – 14 December 1994) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force.

RAF career

The son of the Rev

Cuthbert Hudleston Cuthbert Hudleston (26 March 1863, in Madras – 31 December 1940, in Winchester) was an Anglican priest, most notably Archdeacon of Perth, WA from 1910 until his death. Hudleston was educated at New College, Oxford and ordained in 1887. He serv ...

, sometime

Archdeacon An archdeacon is a senior clergy position in the Church of the East, Chaldean Catholic Church, Syriac Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion, St Thomas Christians, Eastern Orthodox churches and some other Christian denominations, above that o ...

of Perth, Western Australia Hudleston was born in

Kalgoorlie Kalgoorlie is a city in the Goldfields–Esperance region of Western Australia, located east-northeast of Perth at the end of the Great Eastern Highway. It is sometimes referred to as Kalgoorlie–Boulder, as the surrounding urban area includ ...

and educated at Guildford Grammar School in Western Australia, Hudleston joined the Royal Air Force in 1927.Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Chief Marshal Sir Edmund Hudleston
/ref> He served as an armament officer in India before attending the RAF Staff College, Andover in 1938. During World War II he served in various senior staff officer positions at

RAF Middle East Command Middle East Command was a command of the Royal Air Force (RAF) that was active during the Second World War. It had been preceded by RAF Middle East, which was established in 1918 by the redesignation of HQ Royal Flying Corps Middle East that ha ...

and Desert Air Force before being appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 84 Group in 1944. After the war, Hudleston attended the Imperial Defence College before becoming Head of the UK Military Delegation to the Western European Union Military Staff's Committee in 1948 and Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans & Policy at Headquarters SHAPE in 1951. He was made Air Officer Commanding No. 3 Group in 1953 and then became an instructor at the Imperial Defence College in 1956 before being appointed Chief of Staff (Air) for Operation Musketeer, the operation to recover the

Suez Canal The Suez Canal ( arz, قَنَاةُ ٱلسُّوَيْسِ, ') is an artificial sea-level waterway in Egypt, connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Red Sea through the Isthmus of Suez and dividing Africa and Asia. The long canal is a popular ...

. He went on to be Vice-Chief of the Air Staff in 1957, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at

RAF Transport Command RAF Transport Command was a Royal Air Force command that controlled all transport aircraft of the RAF. It was established on 25 March 1943 by the renaming of the RAF Ferry Command, and was subsequently renamed RAF Air Support Command in 1967. ...

in 1962 and Commander of Allied Air Forces Central Europe in 1963. He is last appointment was as Deputy Commander-in-Chief, Allied Forces Central Europe in 1964 before retiring in 1967. In retirement he became a Director at the Optical Division of

Pilkington Brothers Pilkington is a Japanese-owned glass-manufacturing company which is based in Lathom, Lancashire, United Kingdom. In the UK it includes several legal entities and is a subsidiary of Japanese company Nippon Sheet Glass, NSG Group. Prior to its a ...

Family

In 1936 he married Nancye Davis; they had one son, Anthony, from whom three grandchildren, Marina, Nicholas & Valerie and one daughter, Sally from whom two grandchildren, Cecilia & Lucinda.Obituary: Air Chief Marshal Sir Edmund Hudleston
The Independent, 11 January 1995 Following the death of Nancye in 1980, he married Brenda Withrington. She died in 2020.Hudleston
/ref>

RAF career

Family

References

Further reading