Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard, (6 February 1897 – 21 January 1987) 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) and ...

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 ...

. Goddard is perhaps best known for his interest in

paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Nota ...

phenomena; he claimed to have witnessed a clairvoyant incident in 1946 on which the feature film ''

The Night My Number Came Up ''The Night My Number Came Up'' is a 1955 British supernatural drama film directed by Leslie Norman with the screenplay written by R. C. Sherriff. The plot is based on a real incident in the life of British Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard; his ...

'' (1955) was later based.

Early life

Goddard was born at

Wembley Wembley () is a large suburbIn British English, "suburb" often refers to the secondary urban centres of a city. Wembley is not a suburb in the American sense, i.e. a single-family residential area outside of the city itself. in north-west Londo ...

the son of Dr Charles Goddard. After attending St George's School, Harpenden, he went to the Royal Naval Colleges at

Osborne Osborne may refer to: * Osborne (name) Places Australia * Osborne, South Australia (disambiguation), places associated with the suburb in the Adelaide metropolitan area * Osborne, New South Wales, a rural community in the Riverina region Can ...

and Dartmouth. He served as a

midshipman A midshipman is an officer of the lowest rank, in the Royal Navy, United States Navy, and many Commonwealth navies. Commonwealth countries which use the rank include Canada (Naval Cadet), Australia, Bangladesh, Namibia, New Zealand, South Afr ...

in the first year of the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and in 1915 joined 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 ...

. At this time he met his lifelong friend

Barnes Wallis Sir Barnes Neville Wallis (26 September 1887 – 30 October 1979) was an English engineer and inventor. He is best known for inventing the bouncing bomb used by the Royal Air Force in Operation Chastise (the "Dambusters" raid) to attack ...

. For a period he was patrolling for submarines in

dirigible An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

s, but in 1916 commanded reconnaissance flights over the Somme battlefield.

Between the wars

In 1921, Goddard was selected to read engineering at

Jesus College, Cambridge Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college's full name is The College of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint John the Evangelist and the glorious Virgin Saint Radegund, near Cambridge. Its common name comes fr ...

and then studied at

Imperial College London Imperial College London (legally Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine) is a public research university in London, United Kingdom. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cu ...

before returning to Cambridge in 1925 as an instructor to the university's air squadron. After graduating from the

Royal Naval Staff College The Royal Naval College, Greenwich, was a Royal Navy training establishment between 1873 and 1998, providing courses for naval officers. It was the home of the Royal Navy's staff college, which provided advanced training for officers. The equiv ...

in 1929, he commanded a bomber squadron in Iraq. He returned to England in 1931 as chief instructor of the officers' engineering course. He was then at the Staff College until 1935 when he was appointed deputy director of intelligence at 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 State ...

. He held this post until the outbreak of the

. Goddard later claimed to have had a

clairvoyant Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

episode in 1935, at

RAF Drem 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 ...

, in Scotland. While the airfield was abandoned at the time, Goddard reportedly saw it as it would appear in 1939, after it had been reactivated.

Second World War

Goddard went with the British Expeditionary Force to France in 1939. He was made senior air staff officer in the following year and played a major part in preserving British air assets in the face of the German attacks. When he returned he became director of military cooperation at the Air Ministry, responsible for modernising air support and airborne forces in the RAF. He also made regular air war broadcasts on the BBC. In September 1941, shortly before the

attack on Pearl Harbor The attack on Pearl HarborAlso known as the Battle of Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service upon the United States against the naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, j ...

, he was appointed as Air Commodore Chief of the Air Staff,

Royal New Zealand Air Force The Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) ( mi, Te Tauaarangi o Aotearoa, "The Warriors of the Sky of New Zealand"; previously ', "War Party of the Blue") is the aerial service branch of the New Zealand Defence Force. It was formed from New Zeala ...

(RNZAF). As commander of the RNZAF in the South Pacific, and the only British commander in the region, he was prominent in the operations against the Japanese initial advance. Under

Admiral Halsey Admiral Halsey may refer to: *U.S. Fleet Admiral William Halsey Jr., (1882–1959) **The Paul McCartney song "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" is a song by Paul and Linda McCartney from the album ''Ram''. Released in the ...

, US Navy, he commanded the RNZAF in the

Battle of Guadalcanal The Guadalcanal campaign, also known as the Battle of Guadalcanal and codenamed Operation Watchtower by American forces, was a military campaign fought between 7 August 1942 and 9 February 1943 on and around the island of Guadalcanal in the ...

and the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...

campaigns, for which he was awarded the American

Navy Distinguished Service Medal The Navy Distinguished Service Medal is a military decoration of the United States Navy and United States Marine Corps which was first created in 1919 and is presented to sailors and Marines to recognize distinguished and exceptionally meritoriou ...

. In the 1943 King's Birthday Honours, he was appointed a

Companion of the Order of the Bath Companion may refer to: Relationships Currently * Any of several interpersonal relationships such as friend or acquaintance * A domestic partner, akin to a spouse * Sober companion, an addiction treatment coach * Companion (caregiving), a caregive ...

. Goddard was posted to India in 1943, to take charge of administration for the air command of

South East Asia Command South East Asia Command (SEAC) was the body set up to be in overall charge of Allies of World War II, Allied operations in the South-East Asian theatre of World War II, South-East Asian Theatre during the World War II, Second World War. Histo ...

(SEAC). He remained in the role until 1946 when he became the RAF's representative in Washington. He claimed to have witnessed the clairvoyant experience of another officer, in China during January 1946. According to Goddard, he was at a party in

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

and scheduled to fly to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

that same night, when he heard of another officer having a dream in which Goddard was killed in a plane crash. In the dream an aircraft was carrying Goddard, two other men and a woman, when it experienced difficulties with

atmospheric icing Atmospheric icing occurs in the atmosphere when water droplets suspended in air freezing, freeze on objects they come in contact with. It is not the same as freezing rain, which is caused directly by precipitation. Icing conditions can be particul ...

, and crashed on a pebbled beach near mountains. That night Goddard was persuaded to take two men and a woman on the

Douglas Dakota The Douglas C-47 Skytrain or Dakota ( RAF, RAAF, RCAF, RNZAF, and SAAF designation) is a military transport aircraft developed from the civilian Douglas DC-3 airliner. It was used extensively by the Allies during World War II and remained in ...

transport flying to Tokyo. As in the other's officer's dream, the Dakota plane iced over and was forced to make a crash-landing on the Japanese island of Sado; the crash scene, a pebbled beach near mountains, resembled that described in the dream. Unlike the dream, however, no-one was injured. The story was published in ''

The Saturday Evening Post ''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...

'' of May 26, 1951, and the 1955 film, ''

'', was based on the incident.

Michael Redgrave Sir Michael Scudamore Redgrave CBE (20 March 1908 – 21 March 1985) was an English stage and film actor, director, manager and author. He received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in ''Mourning Becomes Elect ...

played Goddard, who was depicted in the film as becoming excited as the plane made its crash-landing. That reportedly annoyed Goddard, who had been proud of what he had seen as his unemotional behaviour.

Later life

Goddard retired in 1951, and became principal of the College of Aeronautics, where he remained until 1954. He was also a governor of St George's School Harpenden and of

Bryanston School Bryanston School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) located next to the village of Bryanston, and near the town of Blandford Forum, in Dorset in South West England. It was founded in 1928 ...

and was president of the Airship Association from 1975 to 1984. He encouraged Sir George Trevelyan to set up the

Wrekin Trust The Wrekin Trust was a charity (Charity number: 262303) founded by Sir George Trevelyan in 1971, under the active encouragement of Air Marshal Victor Goddard Air Marshal Sir Robert Victor Goddard, (6 February 1897 – 21 January 1987) was a ...

, a body promoting " spiritual education" in 1971. It occupied much of his time in retirement. Through it he became convinced of the reality of the world of the spirit. He spent many years investigating, and lecturing on,

flying saucer A flying saucer (also referred to as "a flying disc") is a descriptive term for a type of flying craft having a disc or saucer-shaped body, commonly used generically to refer to an anomalous flying object. The term was coined in 1947 but has g ...

s. On 3 May 1969, he gave a talk on UFOs at

Caxton Hall Caxton Hall is a building on the corner of Caxton Street and Palmer Street, in Westminster, London, England. It is a Grade II listed building primarily noted for its historical associations. It hosted many mainstream and fringe political and art ...

in London, in which he defended the paraphysical hypothesis. Goddard argued for

extrasensory perception Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, is a claimed paranormal ability pertaining to reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke Universi ...

and other paranormal phenomena in his book ''Flight Towards Reality'' (1975). His claims are disputed by sceptics.Smith, Blake. (2015)
"Should Goddard’s Squadron Drop Dead Fred?"
Skeptic. Retrieved 4 May 2017. Goddard wrote the foreword to

Muriel Dowding Muriel Dowding, Baroness Dowding (; other married name Whiting; 22 March 1908 – 20 November 1993) was an English animal rights activist. Biography Lady Dowding was born in London, the daughter of John Angelo Albino (whose family came from the ...

's 1980 autobiography and Allan Barham's ''Strange to Relate'' (1984).

Family

Goddard married Mildred Catherine Jane Inglis, the daughter of

Alfred Inglis Alfred Markham Inglis (24 September 1856 – 17 June 1919) was an amateur cricketer who played for MCC and Kent County Cricket Club in the 1870s. By profession, he was a banker. Early life Inglis was born in Casouli, India where his father, Li ...

and his wife Ernestine (Nina) Pigou (daughter of

Francis Pigou Francis Pigou (3 January 1832 – 25 January 1916) was an Anglican priest in the second half of the 19th century and the early part of the 20th. Career He was born in Baden-Baden and educated at Ripon Grammar School and Trinity College, Dub ...

, the

Dean of Bristol The Dean of Bristol is the head of the Chapter of the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, Bristol, England. The Dean is Mandy Ford, since her installation on 3 October 2020. List of deans Early modern *1542–1551 William Sno ...

), in 1924. Their daughter, Jane Helen Goddard, was married to Sir Robin Chichester-Clark.

Publications

*''The Enigma of Menace'' (1959) *''Flight Towards Reality'' (1975) *''Skies to Dunkirk'', (1982)

References

External links

Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Mshl Sir Victor Goddard

Imperial War Museum Interview from 1973

Imperial War Museum Interview from 1978
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goddard, Robert Victor 1897 births 1987 deaths People from Wembley Graduates of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Alumni of Jesus College, Cambridge Alumni of Imperial College London People educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne Royal Naval Air Service aviators New Zealand military personnel of World War II Royal New Zealand Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force air marshals of World War II Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Foreign recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States) Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Parapsychologists English writers on paranormal topics Recipients of the Navy Distinguished Service Medal Military personnel from London Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I