Edward Ellington
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Edward Leonard Ellington, GCB, CMG, CBE (30 December 1877 – 13 June 1967) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force.[1] He served in the First World War as a staff officer and then as director-general of military aeronautics and subsequently as controller-general of equipment. In the inter-war years he held command positions in the Middle East, in India and then in Iraq. He served as Chief of the Air Staff in the mid-1930s and in that role he implemented a plan, known as 'Scheme F'. This scheme implemented an increase in the size of the Royal Air Force to 187 squadrons (five bomber squadrons for every two fighter squadrons, reflecting the dominance of the bomber strategy at the time) within three years to counter the threat from Hitler's Germany. He also broke up the command known as "Air Defence of Great Britain" to create RAF Fighter Command, RAF Bomber Command, RAF Coastal Command and RAF Training Command. He then served as Inspector-General of the RAF until his retirement in 1940.
This article is about the British RAF officer. For the British hydraulic engineer, see Edward B. Ellington. For the American jazz musician, see Duke Ellington.
Sir Edward Ellington
30 December 1877
Kensington, London
13 June 1967 (aged 89)
Wandsworth, London
United Kingdom
British Army (1897–1918)
Royal Air Force (1918–40)
1897–1940
Inspector-General of the RAF (1937–39)
Chief of the Air Staff (1933–37)
Air Member for Personnel (1931–33)
Air Defence of Great Britain (1929–31)
Iraq Command (1926–28)
RAF India (1923–26)
RAF Middle East (1922–23)
Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Mentioned in Despatches (4)
Knight of the Legion of Honour (France)
Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd Class (Russia)
Early career[edit]
Born the son of Edward Bayzand Ellington and Marion Florence (née Leonard), Ellington was educated at Clifton College.[2][3] After attending the Royal Military Academy Woolwich, Ellington was commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery on 1 September 1897.[4] He was promoted to lieutenant on 1 September 1900[5] and to captain on 27 April 1904.[6] After attending the Royal Naval War College, Portsmouth in 1908, he was posted to the War Office on 24 August 1909[7] and became a staff officer there on 9 August 1910.[8] He learned to fly in 1912 and was awarded Royal Aero Club certificate No. 305 on 1 October 1912.[9] He went on to be secretary to the Air Committee in November 1912 and a staff officer in the Directorate of Military Aeronautics in May 1913[10] and was then transferred to the Reserve of the Royal Flying Corps on 17 December 1913.[11]
First World War[edit]
When the First World War started, Ellington was under training at the Central Flying School.[12] On 5 October 1914, he was sent, not to a flying post but to be the Deputy Assistant Quartermaster-General at the headquarters of the British Expeditionary Force in France.[13] On 6 March 1915 he was granted a brevet promotion to lieutenant colonel[14] and posted as the assistant adjutant and quartermaster-general of the 2nd Cavalry Division.[12]
Ellington then served as a staff officer, from 22 July 1915 with the 2nd Army,[15] then, from 5 February 1916 with the department of the Chief of the Imperial General Staff,[12] and finally from 14 January 1917 with the General Staff of the VIII Corps.[16] On 20 November 1917 he was made the deputy director-general of military aeronautics under Major General John Salmond at the War Office.[17] Ellington succeeded John Salmond as director-general on 18 January 1918,[18] holding the post until it was disestablished with the creation of the Royal Air Force in April 1918. He was promoted to the temporary rank of major general and appointed acting Controller-General of Equipment in April 1918,[12] becoming substantive in that post in August 1918.[12]
Ellington was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 3 June 1916[19] and awarded the Russian Order of Saint Stanislaus, 2nd Class on 1 June 1917.[20] He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath for services during the war on 1 January 1919.[21]