Percy Groves

Percy Robert Clifford Groves was born on 26 May 1878 at Rai Bareli, India.[5] He was the eldest son of Joseph Groves who served as Commissioner of Railways for the United Provinces in India.[6][7] He was educated at Bedford Modern School.[8]

Groves joined the King's Shropshire Light Infantry where he was commissioned a second lieutenant on 18 October 1899. He served with the 2nd battalion of his regiment in the Second Boer War,[6][7] and was promoted to lieutenant on 9 March 1901.[9] The war in South Africa ended in May 1902, and he returned home later that year, on the SS Kildonan Castle in December 1902.[10] He was employed with the West African Regiment (1903–04) and was Territorial Adjutant (1909–12).[7] In 1914 he joined the Royal Flying Corps, serving with Air Services France (1914–15).[7] On 29 April 1915, he received his Royal Aero Club Aviator's Certificate passing on a Maurice Farman Biplane at Farman Aerodrome, Étampes.[5] He did much active flying in the Dardanelles (1915–16).[1][7]

Between 1916 and 1918, he was Chief of Staff, Royal Flying Corps, in the Middle East "which then embraced four theatres of war".[1][7] In 1918 he was made Director of Flying Operations at the Air Ministry.[1][7] He was then Britain's Air Ministry Representative at the Paris Peace Conference (1919)[2] and British air adviser to the Supreme Council and the Conference of Ambassadors (1921–22).[2]

Groves retired from active service in 1922 with the rank of brigadier general.[7] Based on his experiences on active service, Groves realised that Britain needed to radically rethink its approach to air strategy.[1] Shortly after his retirement from the forces, he proceeded to campaign "for the creation of an effective striking force and for a proper regard for the patent realities of civil aviation".[1] His opinions attracted the interest of Viscount Northcliffe and in 1922 a series of articles on "Our Future in the Air" were published in The Times.[1] He remained a forceful campaigner for an immediate expansion of the RAF to parity with the largest European force within striking distance.[1]

In 1939 Groves returned to active service being made Deputy Director of Intelligence at the Air Ministry with the rank of air commodore, a position he held until April 1940.[1] He was then seconded to the Foreign Office before being demobilised in 1946.[1]

Groves was a colleague of Frederick Sykes and Viscount Trenchard, who both influenced his early military thinking.[4] He was also engaged in lengthy correspondence with Sir Basil Liddell Hart.[11] In terms of his military thinking, Groves was a proponent of the aerial "knock out blow": the possibility of ending a war in its early stages by launching a massive attack on the enemy's centres of gravity.[4]

In the Second Boer War he was awarded the Queen's medal (4 clasps) and the King's medal (2 clasps).[7]

During the First World War he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1916.[7] In the same year he was made Order of the White Eagle of Serbia, 3rd Class with Swords.[7] He was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1918, a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1919 and a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1920.[7]

Groves was an Associate Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; Hon. Secretary General Air League of British Empire, and Editor of Air, 1927–29. He was group captain and honorary air commodore, RAFVR, September 1939.[7]

Groves was a member of the United Service Club.[7] In 1920 he married Suzanne, daughter of T.E. Steen of Oslo; they had one son.[7] He died in Mombasa on 12 August 1959.[6][7]

The National Portrait Gallery has numerous photographic portraits of Groves.[12]

• Flying over Egypt, Sinai and Palestine, National Geographic, 1926[13]
• Behind the Smoke Screen, 1934[14]
• Our Future In The Air, 1935[15]

• Percy Robert Clifford Groves at the National Portrait Gallery
• Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organisation - Air Commodore P R C Groves