Air Marshal Sir Thomas Walker Elmhirst, (15 December 1895 – 6 November 1982), was a senior 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) an ...

in the first half of the 20th century and the first commander-in-chief of the

Royal Indian Air Force The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) was the aerial force of British India and later the Dominion of India. Along with the Indian Army, and Royal Indian Navy, it was one of the Armed Forces of British Indian Empire. The Indian Air Force was offi ...

upon Indian independence in August 1947, in which post he organised the funeral of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

following his assassination in 1948. He later became the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of

Guernsey Guernsey (; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; french: Guernesey) is an island in the English Channel off the coast of Normandy that is part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey, a British Crown Dependency. It is the second largest of the Channel Islands ...

from 1953 to 1958.

Family

Thomas Elmhirst was born on 15 December 1895 to Reverend William Heaton Elmhirst (b. 1856) and Mary Elmhirst (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Knight) (b. 1863), a landed gentry family in

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a Historic counties of England, historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other Eng ...

, where the family seat is Houndhill. He was the fourth of eight boys and had one youngest sister. The children were: *Captain William Elmhirst (1892-1916), killed on 13 November 1916 while serving with the 8th Bn.

East Yorkshire Regiment The East Yorkshire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1685 as Sir William Clifton's Regiment of Foot and later renamed the 15th Regiment of Foot. It saw service for three centuries, before eventually being ...

during the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place be ...

* Leonard Knight Elmhirst (1893–1974), a noted philanthropist and educational reformer who married Dorothy Payne Whitney *Second Lieutenant Ernest Christopher "Christie" Elmhirst (1895–1915), killed on 7 August 1915 while serving with the 8th Bn.

Duke of Wellington's (West Riding Regiment) The Duke of Wellington's Regiment (West Riding) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army, forming part of the King's Division. In 1702, Colonel George Hastings, 8th Earl of Huntingdon, was authorised to raise a new regiment, which he di ...

during the Gallipoli campaign *Thomas Elmhirst (1895–1982) *James Victor Elmhirst (1898–1958) *Richard Elmhirst (b. 1900) *Alfred O. Elmhirst (1901-1995) of Houndhill *Irene Rachel Elmhirst (b. 1902)

Military career

Elmhirst studied at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne,

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight ( ) is a county in the English Channel, off the coast of Hampshire, from which it is separated by the Solent. It is the largest and second-most populous island of England. Referred to as 'The Island' by residents, the Is ...

in 1908, and at Dartmouth in

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...

First World War

In April 1912, Elmhirst joined his first ship, . He was commissioned as a midshipman 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 Fr ...

in 1913 and was posted to in the

1st Battlecruiser Squadron The First Battlecruiser Squadron was a Royal Navy squadron of battlecruisers that saw service as part of the Grand Fleet during the First World War. It was created in 1909 as the First Cruiser Squadron and was renamed in 1913 to First Battle Cr ...

under David Beatty.Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst
/ref> When war came he served on HMS ''Indomitable'' as the ship took part in the initial bombardment of the Turkish

Dardanelles The Dardanelles (; tr, Çanakkale Boğazı, lit=Strait of Çanakkale, el, Δαρδανέλλια, translit=Dardanéllia), also known as the Strait of Gallipoli from the Gallipoli peninsula or from Classical Antiquity as the Hellespont (; ...

forts and the Battle of Dogger Bank, where he commanded 'X Gun Turret', the last one to fire at the German ship before it sank. In 1915 he was selected to be in the first draft of 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 ...

where he served until the end of the First World War. He celebrated the armistice by flying an airship (SSZ73) under the

Menai Bridge Menai Bridge ( cy, Porthaethwy; usually referred to colloquially as Y Borth) is a town and community on the Isle of Anglesey in north-west Wales. It overlooks the Menai Strait and lies by the Menai Suspension Bridge, built in 1826 by Thom ...

with his friend

Gordon Campbell Gordon Muir Campbell, (born January 12, 1948) is a retired Canadian diplomat and politician who was the 35th mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993 and the 34th premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011. He was the leader of the British Co ...

as his passenger. By 1917, he was promoted to flight lieutenant and by March 1918 to major, commanding the Naval Airship Patrol Station on Anglesey in

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

. He then became part of the newly formed

in 1919. Between the wars he trialled the first gyroscopic compass for aircraft in the RAF and became

Air Attaché The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing for ...

to Turkey in the run up to the Second World War. In January 1940 returned to the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force, that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the Secretary of Stat ...

as Deputy Director of Intelligence.

Second World War

During the Second World War he ran the

operations room A control room or operations room is a central space where a large physical facility or physically dispersed service can be monitored and controlled. It is often part of a larger command center. Overview A control room's purpose is produc ...

RAF Uxbridge RAF Uxbridge was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Uxbridge, within the London Borough of Hillingdon, occupying a site that originally belonged to the Hillingdon House estate. The British Government purchased the estate in 1915, three years ...

during the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

. He then commanded the Egypt Command Group under Air Marshal Tedder before becoming Second-in-Command of the

Desert Air Force The Desert Air Force (DAF), also known chronologically as Air Headquarters Western Desert, Air Headquarters Libya, the Western Desert Air Force, and the First Tactical Air Force (1TAF), was an Allied tactical air force created from No. 204 ...

. He continued in this role through the battle of Alamein until after the Allied invasion of

Sicily (man) it, Siciliana (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = Ethnicity , demographics1_footnotes = , demographi ...

. He was then Second-in Command of British Air Forces in North West Europe until the end of the war, serving in

D-Day The Normandy landings were the landing operations and associated airborne operations on Tuesday, 6 June 1944 of the Allied invasion of Normandy in Operation Overlord during World War II. Codenamed Operation Neptune and often referred to as ...

Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...

, the

Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

and the advance across the France and Germany. Finally he became Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Intelligence) in August 1945.

Post war

After the war he was appointed as the Commander of the RAF in India. As independence approached,

Pandit Nehru Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat— * * * * and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...

asked him to be the first Commander-in-Chief of the

in the new Union of India. In 1953, he ran

Operation Totem Operation Totem was a pair of British atmospheric nuclear tests which took place at Emu Field in South Australia in October 1953. They followed the Operation Hurricane test of the first British atomic bomb, which had taken place at the Montebell ...

, the first British

nuclear bomb A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...

land tests in

Emu Field Emu Field is located in the desert of South Australia, at (ground zero Totem I test). Variously known as Emu Field, Emu Junction or Emu, it was the site of the Operation Totem pair of nuclear tests conducted by the British government in Octob ...

, Australia. Later in 1953 he became the Lieutenant-Governor of Guernsey, welcoming

Queen Elizabeth II Elizabeth II (Elizabeth Alexandra Mary; 21 April 1926 – 8 September 2022) was Queen of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth realms from 6 February 1952 until her death in 2022. She was queen regnant of 32 sovereign states during ...

on her inaugural tour of the island as the new monarch. He held the post for five years, retiring in 1958.

Personal life

He married firstly Katherine Gordon Black, daughter of William Black, on 16 December 1930,Charles Mosley, editor, Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, volume 1, page 562. and had two children before Katherine's death in 1965: *Roger Elmhirst (1935–1999) *Caroline Jane Elmhirst (b. 1932), who married Michael Frazer Mackie On 30 October 1968, he married Marian Ferguson (née Montagu Douglas Scott), widow of

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge ...

Andrew Henry Ferguson. Marian was the daughter of Lord Herbert Montagu Douglas Scott and Marie Josephine Edwards, and the granddaughter of The 6th Duke of Buccleuch and Lady Louisa Hamilton. From Marian's first marriage, she was the paternal grandmother of

Sarah, Duchess of York Sarah, Duchess of York (born Sarah Margaret Ferguson; 15 October 1959), also known by the nickname Fergie, is a member of the British royal family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, the younger brother of King Charles III ...

, and maternal great-grandmother of

Princess Beatrice of York Princess Beatrice, Mrs Edoardo Mapelli Mozzi (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary; born 8 August 1988) is a member of the British royal family. She is the elder daughter of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, and Sarah, Duchess of York. She is a niece of Charle ...

and Princess Eugenie of York. Together they lived at Dummer Down House, at Dummer in

Basingstoke Basingstoke ( ) is the largest town in the county of Hampshire. It is situated in south-central England and lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon, at the far western edge of The North Downs. It is located north-east of Southa ...

, Hants, her

dower Dower is a provision accorded traditionally by a husband or his family, to a wife for her support should she become widowed. It was settled on the bride (being gifted into trust) by agreement at the time of the wedding, or as provided by law. ...

estate from her first marriage. Thomas Elmhirst died at

Dummer, Hampshire Dummer is a parish and village in Hampshire, England. It is 6 miles south-west of Basingstoke and half a mile south of Junction 7 on the M3 motorway. In the 2001 census, it had a population of 643, with 127 dwellings, reducing to a population o ...

, on 6 November 1982, in his 87th year. He was survived by his second wife, and his children and grandchildren from his first marriage.

References

, - , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Elmhirst, Thomas Walker 1895 births 1982 deaths Commanders of the Legion of Merit Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Companions of the Order of the Bath Grand Officers of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Heads of RAF Intelligence Knights Commander of the Order of the British Empire People from Barnsley Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium) Royal Air Force air marshals of World War II Royal Naval Air Service aviators Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I Royal Navy officers British air attachés Graduates of Britannia Royal Naval College People educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne Military personnel from Yorkshire People from Dummer, Hampshire Chiefs of Air Staff (India)