Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt

Air Chief Marshal Sir Edgar Rainey Ludlow-Hewitt, GCB, GBE, CMG, DSO, MC, DL (9 June 1886 – 15 August 1973) was a senior Royal Air Force commander.

First World War

Ludlow-Hewitt was commissioned into the Royal Irish Rifles in 1905 but transferred to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) before the First World War, where he qualified for the Royal Aero Club's Aviator's Certificate no. 886 on 11 September 1914.^[1] During the war he served first as a pilot in No. 1 Squadron Royal Flying Corps and then later as the Officer Commanding No. 15 Squadron and No. 3 Squadron on the Western Front.^[1] In 1916 Ludlow-Hewitt took up command of the 3rd (Corps) Wing as a temporary lieutenant colonel.^[1] Late in the following year, he was promoted to brigadier general and made the Inspector of Training at the headquarters of the RFC Training Division.^[1] Like other members of the RFC, he transferred to the Royal Air Force (RAF) on its creation on 1 April 1918.^[1] It was also on that date that he became General Officer Commanding (GOC) the Training Division.^[1] Less than two months later he was appointed GOC the 10th Brigade.^[1]

Later career

He was appointed Air Secretary in 1922 and Commandant of the RAF Staff College in 1926.^[1] He went on to be Air Officer Commanding Iraq Command in 1930, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff and Director of Operations and Intelligence in 1933 and Air Officer Commanding the RAF India in 1935.^[1] In 1937 Ludlow-Hewitt was promoted to Air Chief Marshal and appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command.^[1] In the Second World War, Ludlow-Hewitt was replaced by Portal in April 1940 because of Ludlow-Hewitt's insistence on the formation of Operational Training Units, at the expense of the availability of front line airmen.^[2] He spent the remainder of the war as Inspector-General of the RAF and did not retire until November 1945, making him the RAF officer with the longest service as an Air Chief Marshal throughout the history of the RAF.^[1]

References

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Chief of the Air Staff (India)
Commander, Indian Group (1919–1920)	Tom Webb-Bowen
Air Officer Commanding RAF, India (1920–1938)	Tom Webb-Bowen Philip Game Sir Edward Leonard Ellington Sir Geoffrey Salmond Sir John Miles Steel Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferté
Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, Air Forces in India (1938–1947)	Sir Philip Joubert de la Ferté Sir John Frederick Andrews Higgins Sir Patrick Playfair Sir Richard Peirse Sir Guy Garrod Meredith Thomas Sir Roderick Carr Sir Hugh Walmsley
Air Officer Commanding, Royal Indian Air Force (1947–1948)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst**
Commander-in-Chief, Royal Indian Air Force (1948–1950)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst**
Commander-in-Chief, Indian Air Force (1950–1955)	Sir Thomas Elmhirst** Sir Ronald Ivelaw-Chapman** Gerald Gibbs** Subroto Mukerjee
Chief of the Air Staff (1955–present)	Subroto Mukerjee Aspy Engineer Arjan Singh Pratap Chandra Lal Om Prakash Mehra Hrushikesh Moolgavkar Idris Latif Dilbagh Singh Lakshman Mohan Katre Denis La Fontaine Surinder Mehra Nirmal Chandra Suri Swaroop Kaul Satish Kumar Sareen Anil Tipnis Srinivasapuram Krishnaswamy Shashindra Pal Tyagi Fali Homi Major Pradeep Vasant Naik Norman Anil Kumar Browne Arup Raha
(**Seconded from the Royal Air Force)