John Salmond

John Salmond was born the son of Major General Sir William Salmond and Emma Mary Salmond (née Hoyle).[1] His siblings included a brother, Geoffrey,[1] and sister, Gwen.[2][3] After first being taught by a series of governesses he then attended Miss Dixon's School in Thurloe Square, London.[4] At the age of nine Salmond was sent to Aysgarth Preparatory School in Yorkshire.[4] In 1894, he went up to Wellington College and in 1900 he attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst.[1]

After Salmond graduated from Sandhurst with a commission as a second lieutenant on 8 January 1901,[5] he was transferred to the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment on 9 March 1901.[6] He sailed for South Africa to join his unit, which was engaged in the latter part of the Second Boer War.[5] In 1902 he applied for a secondment to the West African Frontier Force but was turned down on the grounds that he was too young: he re-applied the following year and was accepted on 14 November 1903.[7] He was immediately seconded to the colonial service[8] and then promoted to lieutenant on 5 April 1904.[9] Salmond's time in Africa was cut short as he was pronounced medically unfit and returned to England in November 1906.[10] He was promoted to captain on 26 June 1910.[11]

Salmond learned to fly at the Central Flying School in 1912 and was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate No. 272 on 13 August 1912.[12] Having been seconded to the Royal Flying Corps, he became a flight commander at the Central Flying School on 12 November 1912[13] and then a squadron commander there on 31 May 1913.[14] In December 1913 he set the solo British altitude record at 13,140 feet.[15] He became Officer Commanding No. 7 Squadron flying Sopwith Tabloids and the RE8s from RAF Farnborough[5] with the temporary rank of major on 1 May 1914.[16] He continued in that role during the early weeks of the First World War until August 1914, when he became Officer Commanding No. 3 Squadron on the Western Front.[5] He was mentioned in despatches on 8 October 1914[17] and awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 24 March 1915.[18]

Salmond went on to be Officer Commanding the Administrative Wing at RAF Farnborough in April 1915,[19] and having been promoted to the substantive rank of major on 8 January 1916,[20] he became Commander of II Brigade RFC in February 1916,[21] Commander of V Brigade RFC later that month and of VI Brigade RFC in March 1916.[5] He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel on 3 June 1916[22] and was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 4 June 1917.[23]

Major-General Salmond in 1917.

Salmond became Commander of the Training Brigade in July 1916 and then, as General Officer Commanding Training Division from August 1917,[5] he opened many more flying schools, laid down minimum training standards and introduced new modern teaching methods.[15] He was appointed Director-General of Military Aeronautics at the War Office on 18 October 1917.[24] Promoted to brevet colonel on 7 December 1917,[25] Salmond became General Officer Commanding the Royal Flying Corps in the Field (formation subsequently redesignated Royal Air Force in the Field) on 18 January 1918[26] and managed to secure complete air superiority over the German forces.[27] He was appointed a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order on 13 August 1918.[28]

Salmond was appointed an Officer of the French Legion of Honour on 10 October 1918[29] and a Commander of the Belgian Order of Leopold on 8 November 1918 and was awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre on the same date.[30] He was also appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 1 January 1919[31] and awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal on 15 July 1919[32] and the French Croix de Guerre on 21 August 1919.[33]

Salmond was awarded a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as a major-general in August 1919 (shortly afterwards redesignated as an air vice marshal).[34] He was made Air Officer Commanding Southern Area in September 1919 and then Air Officer Commanding Inland Area in April 1920.[5] In October 1922 he became Air Officer Commanding Iraq Command,[5] in which role, as officer commanding all British forces in Iraq,[35] he halted a Turkish invasion[1] and sought to put down a Kurdish uprising against King Faisal, the British-sponsored ruler of Iraq.[36] Promoted to air marshal on 2 June 1923,[37] he became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Air Defence of Great Britain in January 1925.[5] He was placed on loan to Australian Government in May 1928, where he made an extensive aerial tour of northern Australia.[5][38] before being promoted to air chief marshal[39] and appointed Air Member for Personnel on 1 January 1929.[40]

Salmond was appointed Chief of the Air Staff on 1 January 1930.[41] In that role he bitterly opposed the position taken by British politicians at the World Disarmament Conference in Geneva which would have led to the UK's complete aerial disarmament.[42] In the event the talks broke down when Hitler withdrew from the Conference in October 1933.[42] Salmond was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath in the 1931 Birthday Honours.[43] Salmond was promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 1 January 1933[44] and he relinquished the post of Chief of the Air Staff on 1 April 1933.[45] Salmond was succeeded by his older brother, Air Chief Marshal Sir Geoffrey Salmond.[45] However, only 27 days later, Geoffrey Salmond died and John Salmond was temporarily re-appointed as Chief of the Air Staff.[46] He stood down for the second and final time on 22 May 1933.[47]

MRAF Sir John Salmond

Salmond attended the funeral of King George V in January 1936.[48] During the Second World War, Salmond was Director of Armament Production at the Ministry of Aircraft Production.[5] In the autumn of 1940, he chaired a committee of enquiry into Britain's night air defences; his report was one factor in the removal of Hugh Dowding from Fighter Command.[49] Salmond resigned his post as Director of Armament Production in 1941 after clashing with Lord Beaverbrook, the Minister of Aircraft Production immediately acted the post of Director-General of Flying Control and Air Sea Rescue.[5] Ill health forced Salmond to retire in 1943;[5] however he remained President of the Royal Air Force Club for 23 years and regularly appeared at major RAF events.[1] He became Honorary Air Commodore of No. 3618 (County of Sussex) Fighter Control Unit of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force on 5 January 1950[50] and attended the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in June 1953.[51] He died at Eastbourne in Sussex on 16 April 1968.[1]

In 1913, Salmond married Helen Amy Joy Lumsden.[1] Less than three years later, in 1916, Helen Salmond died giving birth to their first child.[1] In 1924, Salmond married for the second time, this time to Hon. Monica Margaret Grenfell; they had a son and a daughter:[1]

• Julian John William Salmond who married his distant cousin, Brigid Louise Wright, sister of Susan Barrantes and had four children.[52]
• Rosemary Laura Salmond who married to Nicholas Mosley.[53]

• Gunn, John (1985). The Defeat of Distance: Qantas, 1919–1939. Univ of Queensland Press. ISBN 978-0702217074.
• McKinstry, Leo (2010). Hurricane: Victor of the Battle of Britain. John Murray (Publishers). ISBN 978-1-84854-339-3.
• Probert, Henry (1991). High Commanders of the Royal Air Force. HMSO. ISBN 0-11-772635-4.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to John Salmond.

• Laffin, John (1964). Swifter than eagles – A biography of Marshal of the RAF Sir John Salmond. William Blackwood & Sons Ltd. ASIN B0026PTSSC.