Britain
Hugh Trenchard
1873–1956 Commander of the RFC; 'father of the RAF'
Hugh Trenchard, a tall, gruff army officer, learned to fly at 39 and commanded the Royal Flying Corps in France from August 1915 until January 1918. His doctrine of constant offensive patrols over the German lines supported the army but cost many lives, notably in Bloody April 1917. As the RAF's first Chief of the Air Staff he quarreled with the Air Minister and resigned, then led the Independent Force from June 1918. Appointed Chief of the Air Staff again from 1919 to 1930, he preserved the RAF against the demands of the army and navy to take back their air arms, and built it around strategic bombing. He became a viscount in 1936.