Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Hugh Montague Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard GCB OM GCVO DSO (3 February 1873 – 10 February 1956) was a British Army officer who commanded the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) from August 1915 to January 1918. The RFC was followed by the Royal Air Force (RAF), which was founded in March 1918.

Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard
Trenchard in RAF full dress
Nickname	The Camel (1890s) Boom (c. 1912 onwards)
Born	(1873-02-03)3 February 1873 Taunton, England
Died	10 February 1956(1956-02-10) (aged 83) London, England
Buried at	RAF Chapel, Westminster Abbey
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	British Army (1893–1918) Royal Flying Corps (1918–1930)
Rank	Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Commands held	23rd Mounted Infantry Regiment (acting) Royal Flying Corps in the Field Chief of the Air Staff Independent Air Force
Battles/wars	Second Boer War World War I World War II (semi-officially)
Awards	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Member of the Order of Merit Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (Full list)
Other work	Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Chairman of the United Africa Company
Signature

Portrait of Trenchard by William Orpen, 13 May 1917

Trenchard, who learnt to fly in 1912, eventually became Chief of the Air Staff in 1919. In that position he reorganised the Air Ministry, and laid the foundations of the Royal Air Force.

Trenchard was Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1931 to 1935. The Commissioner is the highest ranking police officer in the United Kingdom, despite the fact that his authority is generally confined to Greater London.

Career

As a boy Trenchard found learning difficult. He failed many tests and only just got into the British Army as an officer. Trenchard first went to India with the Army and he then asked to go to South Africa because he wanted to fight in the Boer War. During the fighting, Trenchard was shot in the chest and became unable to walk properly because of damage to his back. He returned to England where a doctor told him to go to Switzerland because the air was better than in England. Trenchard became bored and started to bobsleigh. After crashing on a fast bend, Trenchard was able to walk properly - because his back was fixed. After his health got better still, Trenchard returned to the war in South Africa.

In 1912, Trenchard learned to fly and joined the Royal Flying Corps. He became the second most important man at the Central Flying School in England and had several important jobs in the Royal Flying Corps during World War I. Trenchard was the man in charge of the Royal Flying Corps in France from 1915 to 1917. In 1918, he was the first man in charge of the Royal Air Force for a short time. He then went back to France to take over the Royal Air Force bombing attacks on Germany. Winston Churchill put him back in charge of the Royal Air Force in 1919. Over the next 10 years, Trenchard started Air Force training bases and made sure that it was used to enforce the law in parts of the British Empire. In the 1930s Trenchard was in charge of the London's police force (the Metropolitan Police) and as an older man he argued for keeping a big RAF. In modern times, some people say that Trenchard was one of the first people to argue for strategic bombing.

Other websites

• Air of authority - a history of RAF organisation - Marshal of the RAF The Viscount Trenchard of Wolfeton
• USAF Association Magazine - Trenchard at the creation Archived 2007-02-24 at the Wayback Machine
• First World War.com - Who's Who: Hugh Trenchard
• History learning site - Hugh Trenchard
• British Ministry of Defence - Trenchard: father of the RAF Archived 2012-10-26 at the UK Government Web Archive