Air
Officer Commanding, No 12 Group
Air Vice Marshal
Trafford Leigh-Mallory C.B., D.S.O.
Born in
Cheshire, 1892, Leigh-Mallory served with the Territorial
Battalion of the King's (Liverpool) Regiment during 1914 and
shortly afterwards received a commission in the Lancashire
Fusiliers. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and
later became a Major in the Royal Air Force in 1918. He was
mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished
Service Order (D.S.O.).
In the RAF he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader before
joining the School of Army Co-operation in 1921, which he
later commanded. After service at the Air Ministry and
overseas he was given command of No: 12 Group in 1937.
During the Battle of Britain he campaigned hard with the War
Cabinet to adopt his “Big Wing” tactics that created
divisions between himself and Air Vice-Marshal Park along
with Dowding. In 1942 he moved to No: 11 Group, promoted to
Air Marshal and appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of
Fighter Command.
In 1944 Leigh-Mallory, as Air Commander-in-Chief, South-East
Asia Command, was killed with his wife when the plane they
were travelling in crashed. |