The Victorian GCB star may have been the one which was originally given to his grandfather, King Edward VII, following his receipt of the GCB in February 1865. The uniform carries the King’s neck badge as sovereign of the , which comprises a standard pattern military division KCB badge, but with a crown added to the top. This style of badge is not nor- mally worn by the present sovereign, Queen Elizabeth I1, but it is similar to the insignia which is used by the present Great Master of the Order, Prince Charles.

One of King George’s last public acts connected with the British orders of knighthood related to an installation of GCBs in the chapel of the Order of the Bath on 24 May 1951. This was the first installation to have been held for the members of the Order, at King Henry VIl’s Chapel in Westminster Abbey, since 1935. The King installed a number of RAF officers as GCBs, includ- ing Marshals of the RAF Sir Edward EIlington, Lord Newall, and Sir , and Lord Dowding. During the same ceremony, the King installed his brother, Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, as Great Master of the Order, a post to which he had been ap- pointed in 1942 after the death of the Duke of Connaught. The names of F_llington, Newall and Salmond will all be referred to again.

The King’s insignia also includes the Royal Victorian Chain, which he received from his father in June 1927, and this is worn close to a bar containing his mounted decorations and medals. The King’s mounted awards include the 1914-15 Star and British War and victory Medals from the First World War; the 1939-45, Italy, and France and Germany Stars, and Defence and War Medals from the Second World War; the 1897 and 1935 Jubilee Medals; the 1902 and 1911 Coronation Medals; the Territorial Decoration with one bar, which the King assumed on 12 De- cember 1950, in his capacity as honorary colonel of the 4th Battalion, the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders, Territorial Army; and a series of overseas awards connected with the two wars, comprising the Russian Order of St Vladimir (with swords), the Norwegian War Cross, the Greek Cross of Valour, the French Croux de Guerre (with palm), and the American European-African-Middle East Campaign Medal.

The King’s overseas service with the RAF was limited to a few weeks before the Armistice. Sir John Wheeler-Bennett, in his biography of King George VI, recorded: "Prince Albert longed to get to France before the final collapse of the enemy and it was with the keenest satisfaction that he found himself posted to General Trenchard’s staff. With Louis Greif he flew the Channel on October 23 and reported to the Headquarters of the RAF at Autigny. General Trenchard’s command covered the wide Nancy area of the Western Front, and Prince Albert enabled to witness operations for both day and night bombing, not only by British but also by American, French and Italian squadrons. This was his first contact with aerial warfare in the offensive - he had experienced anti-aircraft operatons in England - and it mightily impressed him. ’The offi- cers all seem in very good spirits and never look upon a raid as more than an ordinary flight, which of course in only right’, he wrote to Queen Mary. But it was to the Commander-in-Chief of the that he gave his highest admiration. ’General Trenchard won’t allow anybody to talk about peace here’, he wrote to King George early in November, when the first hint of armistice negotiations was in the air. ’1 have never seen a man more engrossed in his command. He knows a great deal more about what a Squadron should have than the Squad- ron Commander. He fairly keeps everybody up to their work.’ The rumours of peace then cir- culating about the IAF Headquarters were true, nevertheless, and the end came very swiftly. At eleven o’clock on the morining of November 11 the guns along the Western Front were stilled and the slaughter which had endured for four years suddenly ceased... Like many an- other young officer, Prince Albert found himself without immediate employment."

12) Sir Huqh Trenchard

Hugh Trenchard, the object of Prince Albert’s "highest admiration" in 1918, has generally been referred to as the father of the RAF. He commanded the during the war, and succeeded General Sir as Chief of the Air Staff in 1918, an appoint- ment which he held for a decade. During his time at the head of the RAF, Trenchard carried out widespread reforms, work which laid the foundation for the flying force which emerged to counter the Nazi threat in 1939. The Hendon dirplay contains a number if items of insignia relating to the orders of which Trenchard was a member. The most obvious element within the display relates to his member- ship of the Order of the Bath. He first entered the Order as a Companion on 1 January 1914, while he was a Brevet Major in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, serving as an assistant commandant of the . His promotion to KCB came four years later, and was gazetted as being "for valuable services rendered in connection with military operations in the field". Trenchard became the first RAF officer to reach the rank of GCB, to which he was appointed on 1 January 1924. Between Trenchard’s nomination in 1924 and the end of the reign of King George VI in 1952, only 15 appointments were made to the Order of the Bath at the Knight Grand Cross level which involved RAF officers (all held the rank of Air Chief Marshal at the time they received the honour).

1931 Sir John Salmond, KCB CMG CVO DSO 1935 Sir , KCB CMG CBE 1937 Sir John Steel, KCB KBE CMG 1938 Sir Cyril Newall, KCB CMG CBE AM (later Lord Newall) 1940 Sir , CVO KCB CMG (later Lord Dowding) 1941 Sir Arthur Longmore, KCB DSO 1942 Sir Charles Portal, KCB DSO MC (later Viscount Portal of Hungerford) Sir Wilfrid Freeman, KCB DSO MC Sir Arthur Tedder, KCB (later Lord Tedder) 1945 Sir Arthur Harris, KCB OBE AFC 1946 Sir Sholto Douglas, KCB MC DFC (later Lord Douglas of Kirtleside) Sir Edgar Ludlow-Hewitt, GBE KCB CMG DSO MC Sir Keith Park, KCB KBE MC DFC 1948 Sir , KCB DSO MC 1951 Sir James Robb, KCB KBE DSO DFC AFC

Several items associated with Trenchard’s membership of the Bath are shown, including his mantle of red silk, bearing a representation of the GCB star on the shoulder, which he was enti- tled to wear on formal occassions; his collar and badge as a GCB; his breast star, bearing the motto "ICH DIEN" which was introduced by the Prince Regent’s reforms in January 1815. To- ward the entrance of the Trenchard gallery is Sir Hugh’s banner as a GCB, which previously hung in Westminster Abbey. This massive banner, containing his coat of arms, and measuring more than 6 feet square, was placed in King Henry VIl’s Chapel in connection with his installa- tion as a GCB on 3 July 1935, and it remained there until his death in February 1956.

Trenchard’s appointment to the Order of the Bath was conferred by the sovereign on the ad- vice of the responsible minister, whether the Secretary of State for War or the Secretary of State for Air, as was normal for all service personnel. Sir Hugh did, however, receive two honours which were within the personal gift of the sovereign, and which could be granted with- out direct ministerial involvement. He became a Knight Grand Cross of the in July 1935, and joined the exclusive Order of Merit in January 1951. The GCVO in 1935 resulted from Sir Hugh’s, by now Lord Trenchard’s, services as Commissioner of the Met- ropolitan Police, an office which he held after his time as Chief of the Air Staff and which he filled as the nation marked the Silver Jubilee of King . His term at the head of Lon- don’s police force was also marked in 1936 with his promotion in the peerage to the rank of Viscount. The Hendon display contains the badge and star of a GCVO which Lord Trenchard received in 1935. it also includes the rare military pattern badge of a member of the Order of Merit which Trenchard receivec~ from Kinge George VI at an investiture which was held at Buckingham Palace on 16 February 1951. The OM was limited to only 24 members at any time, and when Lord Trenchard ioined, the existing holders of the OM included Johe Masefield, Vaughan Williams, Augustus John, Winston Churchill, T.S. Eliot, and Bertrand Russell. Al- though Trenchard was the most senior Marshal of the RAF, he was not the first to secure a place in the Order of Merit. Tow officers had received the OM before Lord Trenchard, the first on 29 October 1940, when the King nominated and invested Marshal of the RAF Sir Cyril Newall, following his period as Chief of the Air Staff, and the second followed on 1 January 1946 of Marshal of the RAF Lord Portal of Hungerford, Newall’s successor as Chief of the Air Staff.

]4 There have been no further RAF appointments to the Order of Merit since Lord Trenchard’s nomination in 1951, and no holders of the military pattern of the OM badge since the death of Earl Mountbatten of Burma in 1979. The insignia of Newall and Portal are referred to again in due course.

More than 40 years before he joined the Order of Merit, Trenchard received his first insignia as a member of a British order, that of a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, and this is on display at Hendon, with his other medals and decorations. Trenchard was awarded his DSO in September 1906, while a Captain and Brevet Major in the Royal Scots Fusiliers, "in recognition of services during the operations in the Bende-Onitsha hinterland, Southern Nige- ria, November 1905-April 1906". His badge as a DSO is mounted with the Queen’s and King’s South Africa Medals, the African General Service Medal with three bars, the 1914 Star and bar, the British War and Victory Medals, the 1935 Jubilee Medal, the 1937 and 1953 Coronation Medals, the Belgian Croix de Guerre, and the American Distinguished Service Medal. In addi- tion to the Belgian Croix de Guerre and the American DSM, Lord Trenchard received a range of other overseas honours, and the display includes the grand cross insigr~ia of the Iraqi Order of El Rafidain and the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasuree, and the third class neck badges of the Russian Order of St Anne, the French , the Italian Order of the Crown, and the Belgian Order of Leopold (with swords).

The last item in the Trenchard display is the badge which he wore to mark his dignity as a bar- onet. Sir Hugh received his baronetcy in October 1919 to mark his distinguished services dur- ing the First World War. He received no insignia in connection with this new honour in 1919, for the simple reason that no badge existed for the majority of baronets until 1929, when King George V approved the issue of a series of badges. The oval insignia was introduced in 1929 contining the arms of Ulster, within a border containing (for all baronets created after 1801) a design based on the national flowers of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The reverse of the badge is plain and bears the inscription "Trenchard of Wolfeton 1919". Less than a dozen offi- cers from the armed forces were granted baronetcies after the conclusion of the First World War, and Trenchard was the only one from the . The naval recipients of the honour included Admiral Sir Charles Madden, Vice-Admiral Sir John de Robeck, and Rear-Ad- mirals Sir Roger Keyes and Sir Reginald Tyrwhitt, with the army being represented by Field- Marshal Sir Henry Wilson and Generals Sir William Robertson and Sir William Birdwood. Very few senior RAF officers received a baronetcy after Trenchard’s award in 1919, the most nota- ble exceptions being Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfred Rhodes, who was granted that honour in Ju~y 1945 in connection with his work as chief executive at the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and Marshal of the RAF Sir Arthur Harris, who was honoured in January 1953, some years after he relinquished his duties as Commander-in-Chief at Bomber Command. (3) The Chiefs of the Air Staff

Lord Trenchard was the longest serving of al! of the Chiefs of the Air Staff who have held the office since the creation of the RAF in 1918. The gallery adjacent to the one which contains Lord Trenchard’s insignia holds awards connected with a further eight Chiefs, and there is also one other head of the RAF who is represented at Hendon, Sir John Slessor, whose awards are referred to in part (4). The decorations in the Chiefs of the Air Staff section refer to the following individuals, all of whom, with the exception of Sir Frederick Sykes, reached the rank of Marshal of the RAF:

Sir Frederick Sykes (Chief of the Air Staff, 1918) Sir John Salmond (1930-33) Sir Edward Ellington (1933-37) Sir Cyril Newall, later Lord Newall (1937-40) Sir Charles Portal, later Viscount Portal of Hungerford (1940-45) Sir Arthur Tedder, later Lord Tedder (1946-50) Sir (1974-76) Sir Nell Cameron, later Lord Cameron of Balhousie (1976-77)