Fleet Air Arm - Notable Members

Notable Members

• Vice-Admiral Richard Bell Davies (1886–1966) – the first naval aviator to receive the VC and the first naval aviator of the Fleet Air Arm to reach flag rank
• Vice-Admiral Sir Lumley Lyster (1888–1957) – drew up attack plan in 1935 that was used for the Battle of Taranto five years later
• Admiral Sir Reginald Portal (1894–1983) – naval aviator who was the younger brother of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Portal (1893–1971)
• Henry Allingham (1896–2009) – last survivor of Battle of Jutland (Royal Naval Air Service then Royal Air Force, never a member of the Fleet Air Arm).
• Captain Henry Fancourt (1900–2004) – a pioneering aviator, he had a distinguished career in naval aviation until 1949. Worked for Short Bros and Hartland.
• Ralph Richardson (1902–1983) – English stage and screen actor, volunteered as a navy pilot during Second World War and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Commander in the Air Branch
• Admiral of the Fleet Sir Caspar John (1903–1984) – First Sea Lord 1960–63 and the first British naval aviator to reach the highest rank within the RN.
• Admiral Sir Walter Couchman (1905–1981) – naval observer who earned his pilot's wings too, he led the fly-past for the Coronation Fleet Review in June 1953.
• Laurence Olivier (1907–1989) – English stage and screen actor and director, volunteered as a navy pilot during the Second World War and rose to the rank of Lieutenant in the Air Branch.
• Lieutenant Commander (A) Eugene Esmonde (1909–1942) – posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for leading 825 Naval Air Squadron Swordfish torpedo bombers in an attack on German capital ships during the "Channel Dash".
• Michael Horden (1911–1995) – actor, served as fighter controller during World War II.
• Jeffrey Quill (1913–1996) - RAF officer and Spitfire test pilot (Vickers-Armstrongs) who served five months with Fleet Air Arm as T/Lt.Cdr RNVR in 1944–5, helping to develop better carrier deck-landings with the Supermarine Seafire, the naval version of the Spitfire.
• Kenneth More (1914–1982) – actor, including films such as Reach for the Sky and Sink the Bismarck.
• Commander Charles Lamb (1914–1981) – author of the Second World War Fleet Air Arm autobiography War in a Stringbag
• Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Compston (1915–2000) – served briefly in the British Army, then in the RAF for two years, before transferring as a pilot to the Royal Navy in 1938.
• Admiral Sir (Leslie) Derek Empson (1918–1997) – naval pilot who joined the Royal Navy as a naval rating. In his flying career, executed 782 aircraft carrier landings without a mishap.
• Rear-Admiral Cedric Kenelm Roberts (1918–2011) – (always known as 'Chico') a distinguished naval pilot who joined the Royal Navy as a naval rating in 1940. He was personal pilot to Vice-Admiral Lumley Lyster in 1943, commanded three Naval Air Squadrons and was shot down during the Korean War. Later, he commanded three Naval Air Stations and ended his naval flying career as Flag Officer Naval Flying Training 1968–71 Link to obituary, The Daily Telegraph, 5 September 2011.
• Lieutenant-Commander Charles Wines ("Charlie Wines") (1917–1991) – joined the Royal Navy as a Supply Assistant, flew Swordfish torpedo bomber as a rating pilot in the Second World War. Commissioned as a pilot in 1944 he later spent more than twenty years, in the same job as a serving and retired officer, as the FAA Drafting Officer and as such the career manager for thousands of FAA ratings.
• Rear-Admiral Dennis Cambell (1907–2000) – inventor of the angled flight deck for aircraft carriers in 1951.
• Rear-Admiral Nick Goodhart (1919–) – inventor of the mirror-sight deck landing system for aircraft carriers in 1951.
• Captain Eric "Winkle" Brown (1919–) – holds the world record for the most types of aircraft flown by an individual (487 types). As a test pilot he made the first ever a jet landing on an aircraft carrier in December 1945.
• Lieutenant Commander John Moffat (1919–) – crippled the German battleship Bismarck on 26 May 1941.
• Admiral Sir John Treacher (1924–) – naval pilot who was promoted Rear-Admiral at the age of 45 and held four important flag appointments before leaving the Royal Navy in 1977, despite many expecting him to become First Sea Lord, for a career in business. Was at the helm of Westland during the political drama of the 1980s.
• Admiral Sir Ray Lygo (1924–) – naval pilot who joined the Royal Navy as a naval rating in 1942 and who reached First Sea Lord in 1978. led a successful career in industry and was Chief Executive and Deputy Chairman of British Aerospace in the 1980s.
• Sir George Martin (1926–) – record producer for The Beatles.
• Admiral of the Fleet Sir Ben Bathurst (1936–) – First Sea Lord 1993–95 and the last Royal Navy officer to be promoted to five-star rank.
• Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Woodard KCVO (c.1939–) – naval aviator commanded two Naval Air Squadrons, two warships, a Naval Air Station, the Clyde submarine base and ended his career as the Flag Officer Royal Yachts 1990–95, the only aviator to command HM Royal Yacht Britannia.
• Rear-Admiral Iain Henderson (c.1948–) – the first officer, and first naval officer, to hold the modern appointment of Air Officer Commanding 3 Group 2000–01.
• Vice-Admiral His Excellency Sir Adrian Johns (c.1952–) is the first naval aviator to hold the post of Governor of Gibraltar.
• Commander Prince Andrew, Duke of York (1960–) – served during the Falklands War 1982 and for some years afterwards.

Some 64 naval pilots and 9 observers have reached flag rank in the Royal Navy and 4 Royal Marines pilots general rank in the Royal Marines. Four of these admirals with pilot's 'wings' were air engineering officers (test pilots) and two were supply officers; two of the non-executive officers reached four-star rank: a supply officer, Admiral Sir Brian Brown (1934–), and a Royal Marine, General Sir Peter Whiteley (1920–).

• At least 21 naval air engineering officers have reached flag rank (including the four test pilots (see above).