Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

William Keir "Bill" Carr, CMM, DFC,

OStJ The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of c ...

, CD (March 19, 1923 – October 14, 2020) was a Canadian

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...

officer. As the first commander of Air Command, he has been described as the father of the modern Canadian Air Force.

Early years

Carr grew up in Newfoundland, one of six children, with four brothers and a sister. At age 18, he attended Mount Allison University and obtained his BA, during which time he sold typewriters to earn extra money for school. It was during university that he joined the Canadian

Officer Training Corps The Officers' Training Corps (OTC), more fully called the University Officers' Training Corps (UOTC), are military leadership training units operated by the British Army. Their focus is to develop the leadership abilities of their members whilst ...

Second World War service

Recruited for service in 1941, when deployed overseas he was stationed first with No.9 OTU (operational training unit) with photo reconnaissance training on the

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 to the Rolls-Royce Grif ...

. Later he was deployed to No. 542 Squadron at

RAF Benson Royal Air Force Benson or RAF Benson is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located at Benson, near Wallingford, in South Oxfordshire, England. It is a front-line station and home to the RAF's fleet of Westland Puma HC2 support helicopters, us ...

flying the Spitfire PR Mk XI, one of which he flew to Malta when he was transferred to No. 683 Squadron. During one mission he suffered minor injury when his Spitfire lost control over

Perugia Perugia (, , ; lat, Perusia) is the capital city of Umbria in central Italy, crossed by the River Tiber, and of the province of Perugia. The city is located about north of Rome and southeast of Florence. It covers a high hilltop and pa ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. He also had one of the first encounters with one of the first

Me 262 The Messerschmitt Me 262, nicknamed ''Schwalbe'' (German: "Swallow") in fighter versions, or ''Sturmvogel'' (German: "Storm Bird") in fighter-bomber versions, is a fighter aircraft and fighter-bomber that was designed and produced by the German ...

s during a mission near

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. With 683 Squadron in 1944 he was nominated for and received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Post-war service

After the war, Carr made swift progress through the ranks. He became Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff in 1973, during which post "he set out to undo the “handiwork” of

Paul Hellyer Paul Theodore Hellyer (August 6, 1923 – August 8, 2021) was a Canadian engineer, politician, writer, and commentator. He was the longest serving member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada at the time of his death. Early life Hellyer w ...

by unscrambling air force formations and functions and consolidating them as Air Command." He then became the first Commander of Air Command in 1975 before retiring from active duty in 1978.Keir Carr William Keir Carr
Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame After retirement from the Canadian Forces Carr joined Canadair where he became Vice-President of International Marketing, primarily in sales of the

Canadair Challenger The Bombardier Challenger 600 series is a family of business jets developed by Canadair after a Bill Lear concept, and then produced from 1986 by its new owner, Bombardier Aerospace. At the end of 1975, Canadair began funding the developmen ...

and later in the same role for

Bombardier Aerospace Bombardier Aviation is a division of Bombardier Inc. It is headquartered in Dorval, Quebec, Canada. Its most popular aircraft included the Dash 8 Series 400, CRJ100/200/440, and CRJ700/900/1000 lines of regional airliners, and the newer CS ...

. Carr died in October 2020 at the age of 97.Farewell to the father of the modern RCAF
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Awards and honours

* Distinguished Flying Cross 1944 *

Venerable Order of Saint John The Order of St John, short for Most Venerable Order of the Hospital of Saint John of Jerusalem (french: l'ordre très vénérable de l'Hôpital de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem) and also known as St John International, is a British royal order of ...

Commander of the Order of Military Merit "Service before self" , eligibility = Standing membership in the Canadian Forces , criteria = Conspicuous merit and exceptional service , status = Currently constituted , head_title = Sovereign , head = Cha ...

* Legion of Merit * Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame

Notes

References

External links

Canada's 25 Most Renowned Military Leaders
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Carr, William Keir 1923 births 2020 deaths Aviation history of Canada Canadian military personnel from Newfoundland and Labrador Canadian aviators Canadian World War II pilots Royal Canadian Air Force officers Canadian Forces Air Command generals Recipients of the Legion of Merit People from Newfoundland (island) Commanders of the Order of Military Merit (Canada) Mount Allison University alumni