Sir Thomas Elmhirst
15 December 1895 – 6 November 1982
Place of birth	Howden, Yorkshire, England
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Air Force
Years of service	c. 1913–1950
Rank	Air Marshal
Battles/wars	World War I World War II
Awards	Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Air Force Cross Mention in Despatches (4)

Air Marshal Sir Thomas Walker Elmhirst KBE, CB, AFC, DL, RAF (15 December 1895 – 6 November 1982) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the first half of the 20th century and the first commander-in-chief of the newly independent Indian Air Force where he organised the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi following his assassination in 1948. He later became the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Guernsey from 1953 to 1958.

[edit] Military career

He was commissioned as a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1913 and was posted to HMS Indomitable in the British 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty. When war came he served on HMS Indomitable as she took part in the initial bombardment of the Turkish Dardanelles forts and the Battle of Dogger Bank (1915) where he commanded 'X Gun Turret', the last one to fire at the German ship SMS Blücher before she sank. In 1915 he was selected to be in the first draft of the Royal Naval Air Service where he served until the end of the World War I. He celebrated the armistice by flying an airship (SSZ73) under the Menai Bridge with his friend Gordon Campbell (VC) as his passenger. He then became part of the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1919.

Between the wars he trialled the first gyroscopic compass for aircraft in the RAF and became Air attaché to Turkey in the run up to the World War II.

During World War II he ran the operations room at RAF Uxbridge during the Battle of Britain. He then commanded the Egypt Command Group under Air Marshal Tedder before becoming Second-in-Command of the Desert Air Force. He continued in this role through the battle of Alamein until after the Allied invasion of Sicily. He was then Second-in Command of British Air Forces in NW Europe until the end of the war, serving in D-Day, Normandy, the Ardennes and the advance across the France and Germany.

After the war he was appointed as the Commander of the RAF in India. As independence approached Pandit Nehru asked him to be the first Commander-in-Chief of the new Royal Indian Air Force upon its inception.

In 1953 he ran Operation Totem, the first British nuclear bomb land tests in Emu Field, Australia.

[edit] Family

Thomas Elmhirst was born into a landed gentry family in Yorkshire, where the family seat is Houndhill. He was the 4th of eight boys and one youngest sister. His eldest brother William Elmhirst was killed on the Somme and the 3rd son Christopher Elmhirst was killed at Gallipoli.

He married firstly Katherine Gordon Black, daughter of William Black, on Tuesday, December 16, 1930^[1], and had a son, Roger and a daughter, Jane. Katherine died in 1965.

He married secondly Marian Ferguson (née Montagu Douglas Scott), widow of the late Colonel Andrew Henry Ferguson, on Wednesday, October 30, 1968. Marian was the paternal grandmother of Sarah, Duchess of York, and maternal great grandmother of HRH Princess Beatrice of York and HRH Princess Eugenie of York.

Thomas Elmhirst died at Dummer, Hampshire, on Saturday, November 6, 1982, in his 87th year. He was survived by his second wife, Marian Elmhirst (née Montagu Douglas Scott), and his children and grandchildren from his first marriage.

[edit] References

• Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation - Air Mshl Sir Thomas Elmhirst