19.2.42. - No. 10
Air Ministry Bulletin No. 6356
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED, BROADCAST, OR USED ON CLUB TAPES BEFORE 00.30 HOURS ON FRIDAY, 20th FEBRUARY, 1942.
THIS EMBARGO SHOULD BE RESPECTED OVERSEAS BY PREFACING ANY MESSAGE SENT WITH THIS EMBARGO
NEW COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF FOR BOMBER COMMAND
AIR MARSHAL SIR RICHARD PEIRSE GIVEN SPECIAL APPOINTMENT
The Air Ministry announces: -
Air Marshal A.T. Harris, C. B., O.B.E., A.F.C., has been appointed Commander- in-Chief, Bomber in succession to Command, Air Marshal Sir Richard E.C. Peirse,
K.C.B., D.S.0., who has been given a special appointment.
Air Vice-Marshal D.C.S. Evill, C.B., D.S.C., A.F.C., has been appointed to succeed Air Marshal Harris as head of the Royal Air Force delegation in Washington
and has been granted the acting rank of Air Marshal as from the date of his
appointment.
(NOTES ON CAREERS)
Air Marshal HARRIS was Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from November 1940
until May 1941, when he was appointed for special duty with the British Air staff
at Washington.
born at Cheltenham and He was in 1892 was educated at Gore Court, Sitting- bourne and All Hallows, Honiton.
During the last war he served in the ranks of the 1st Rhodesian Regiment in
and the South South-West Africa, and joined Royal Flying Corps as 2nd Lieutenant
in 1915. He served in France and was awarded the A.F.C. in 1918.
He was granted a permanent commission as Squadron Leader in the R.A.F. in
1919, and during the following years served in Iraq, the Middle East and at home.
In 1937 he was promoted Air Commodore and appointed to command No. 4 (Bomber)
he the Group. In the following year visited United States and Canada as a member of the Air Ministry Mission. On his return to England in July of the
he Officer Palestine and same year was appointed Air Commanding Transjordan.
in was He was promoted Air Vice Marshal July, 1939, and in September
appointed A.O.C. of a Bomber Group. He received the C.B. in July, 1940.
He was promoted Acting Air Marshal in June, 1941.
He has twice been mentioned in despatches during the present war, once in September, 1939, and again in January, 1941.
Air Marshal PEIRSE succeeded Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal as Air
Officer Commandlng-in-Chief, Bomber Command, in October, 1940. He had been
Vice-Chief of the Air Staff from the previous April and before that Deputy
Chief of the Air staff. He was a member of the Air Council from November 1939
until he went to Bomber Command.
Sir Richard Peirse was born in 1892 at Croydon and was educated in H.M.S.
Conway, in Germany and at Kings College. His flying career dates from 1913,
when as a Sub-Lieutenant in the R.N.V.R. he graduated as an air pilot at
Eastchurch. He served with the R.N.A.S. during the greater part of the war and
won the D.S.O. for repeatedly attacking under heavy fire the German submarine
stations at Ostend and Zeebrugge in January, 1915. Later he served at the the A.F.C. in Dardanelles and in Italy with the R.A.F. He was awarded
January 1919. /After the 2.
After the war he commanded the Gosport base and was later on
Staff duties at the Air Ministry, in the Middle East and at Coastal
Area H.Q. Prior to these latter appointments he attended a course the at Imperial Defence College. He was Deputy Director of Operations and Intelligence, Air Ministry, from December 1930 until the autumn of 1933 when he became A.O.C. British Forces in Palestine and Trans-
he formed jordan. There a combined staff representing the three
it the had Services; was the first time Army worked under an R.A.F. Command and the experience proved of considerable value. He returned
to the Air Ministry in January 1937, to be Director of Operations and
Intelligence and Deputy Chief of the Air Staff. He was appointed
a K.C.B. in July, 1940.
Air Vice- Marshal EVIII was appointed Senior Air Staff Officer at Fighter Command in August, 1940, following his return to England
from France, where he was Senior Air Staff Officer with the British
Air Forces in France. Before the war he had been Senior Air Staff
Officer Bomber Command.
He received the C.B. in July, 1940. He was mentioned in despatches
in January, 1941, and again in January, 1942.
8th He was born at Broken Hill, New South Wales on the October,
1892. He entered the Royal Naval College, Osborne, in 1905 and served with the Navy until December, 1914, when he joined the Royal Naval
Air Service. He was awarded the D.S.C. in 1916. In April, 1918, he was seconded to the Royal Air Force and in the following July was placed in command of No. 74 Wing, Calshot. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded and awarded the Air Force Cross in January,
1919.
command In 1923 he took over of No. 70 Squadron, Iraq. Between
1923 and 1933 he served at the Royal Air Force, Staff College and as Assistant Commandant of the Cadet College, Cranwell.
After posting to the Air Ministry in 1933, he served with the
Department of Chief of Air Staff and the Directorates of Staff Duties of War Organisation.
In 1936 he was promoted Air Commodore and posted to Headquarters,
Bomber Command, as Senior Air Staff Officer. He was promoted Air
Vice-Marshal in July, 1938. He went to France as Senior Air Staff
Officer, with the B.A.F.F. in January, 1940.