Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

Sir George Augustus Walker, (24 August 1912 – 11 December 1986) was a

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft that utilizes air-to-ground weaponry to drop bombs, launch aerial torpedo, torpedoes, or deploy air-launched cruise missiles. There are two major classifications of bomber: strategic and tactical. Strateg ...

pilot, a

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by one or more jet engines. Whereas the engines in Propeller (aircraft), propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much ...

pioneer, and a senior

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

officer in the post-war era, as well as a rugby player.

Early life

Walker was born on 24 August 1912 in West

Garforth Garforth () is a town in the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It sits in the Garforth and Swillington ward of Leeds City Council and the Leeds East parliamentary constituency. As of 2011, the population ...

Leeds Leeds is a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is the largest settlement in Yorkshire and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds Metropolitan Borough, which is the second most populous district in the United Kingdom. It is built aro ...

, and studied at

St. Bees School St Bees School is a co-educational fee-charging school, located in the West Cumbrian village of St Bees, England. In 1583, it was founded by Edmund Grindal, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as a free grammar school for boys. The school remaine ...

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

, and

St Catharine's College, Cambridge St Catharine's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England. Founded in 1473 as Katharine Hall, it adopted its current name in 1860. The college is nicknamed "Catz". The colle ...

, where he took a second in the natural science

tripos TRIPOS (''TRIvial Portable Operating System'') is a computer operating system. Development started in 1976 at the Computer Laboratory of Cambridge University and it was headed by Dr. Martin Richards. The first version appeared in January 1978 a ...

. He played

rugby Rugby may refer to: Sport * Rugby football in many forms: ** Rugby union: 15 players per side *** American flag rugby *** Beach rugby *** Mini rugby *** Rugby sevens, 7 players per side *** Rugby tens, 10 players per side *** Snow rugby *** Tou ...

for Yorkshire, and twice for England in 1939.

RAF career

He joined the Royal Air Force from university on 29 March 1933. In November 1940 during the Second World War he was appointed

Officer Commanding The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually giv ...

No. 50 Squadron in which role he earned the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a Military awards and decorations, military award of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly throughout the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth, awarded for operational gallantry for highly successful ...

and Distinguished Flying Cross before moving on to become Station Commander at

RAF Syerston Royal Air Force Syerston, commonly known simply as RAF Syerston , is a Royal Air Force station in the parish of Flintham, near Newark, Nottinghamshire, England. Opened in 1940, it was used by the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a bomber base during t ...

in April 1942. While working as station commander at RAF Syerston he rushed in a fire truck from the control tower to a taxiing

Lancaster bomber The Avro Lancaster, commonly known as the Lancaster Bomber, is a British Second World War heavy bomber. It was designed and manufactured by Avro as a contemporary of the Handley Page Halifax, both bombers having been developed to the same spec ...

when he saw it was on fire. He then tried to remove

incendiary bomb Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices, incendiary munitions, or incendiary bombs are weapons designed to start fires. They may destroy structures or sensitive equipment using fire, and sometimes operate as anti-personnel weaponry. Incendiarie ...

s from under the bomb bay in the hope that he could prevent a bomb from exploding, but it detonated and he lost his right arm as a result. Returning to active service with an artificial arm, he was referred to by personnel as the one-armed bandit. In February 1945 he was appointed Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters No. 4 Group and went on to receive the

Croix de Guerre The (, ''Cross of War'') is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was first awarded during World ...

and

Légion d'Honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

. After the War he was appointed Deputy Director of Operational Training at the

Air Ministry The Air Ministry was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom with the responsibility of managing the affairs of the Royal Air Force and civil aviation that existed from 1918 to 1964. It was under the political authority of the ...

before taking up the role of Senior Air Staff Officer for the Rhodesian Air Training Group in 1948. In 1951 he became Officer Commanding

RAF Coningsby Royal Air Force Coningsby or RAF Coningsby , is a Royal Air Force (RAF) station located south-west of Horncastle, and north-west of Boston, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, England. It is a Main Operating Base of the RAF and h ...

and in 1954 he was made Commandant of the RAF Flying College at

Manby __NOTOC__ Manby is a village and civil parish in the East Lindsey Non-metropolitan district, district of Lincolnshire, England, and lies approximately east from Louth, Lincolnshire, Louth. Manby contains a village post office. Other amenitie ...

where he developed flying techniques for jet aircraft: he received the Air Force Cross in 1956 for his work in this and techniques for flights over the

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's rotation, Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distingu ...

. He became Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Group in October 1956, Chief Information Officer at the Air Ministry in 1959 and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at

Flying Training Command Flying Training Command was an organization of the Royal Air Force; it controlled flight training units. The command's headquarters were at RAF Shinfield Park, Reading in Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal Count ...

in 1961. He held the post of Inspector-General of the RAF from 1964 to 1966 when he became Deputy Commander-in-Chief

Allied Forces Central Europe Allied Joint Force Command Brunssum (JFCBS) is a NATO command with its headquarters at Brunssum, the Netherlands. It was established in 2004, as part of a reorganisation that reduced the number of NATO Military Command Structure headquarters. ...

. He continued his interest in rugby, acting as a referee and being President of the

Rugby Union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

in 1965–6. He retired in 1970. Following his retirement he carried out various voluntary activities, notably for the

Royal Air Forces Association The Royal Air Forces Association, also known as RAF Association or RAFA, is a British registered charity. It provides care and support to serving and retired members of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth, and to their dependents. The ...

, including the role of President.

Family

On 5 September 1942 he married Dorothy Brenda Wilcox (who survived him) and they had a son and daughter. He died 11 December 1986 in

King's Lynn King's Lynn, known until 1537 as Bishop's Lynn and colloquially as Lynn, is a port and market town in the borough of King's Lynn and West Norfolk in the county of Norfolk, England. It is north-east of Peterborough, north-north-east of Cambridg ...

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

. He is commemorated by a memorial

blue plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom, and certain other countries and territories, to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving a ...

in Lidgett Lane in Garforth, where he lived as a child.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Walker, Gus 1912 births 1986 deaths Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force rugby union players English aviators British World War II pilots British World War II bomber pilots Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Croix de Guerre 1939–1945 (France) Recipients of the Legion of Honour Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Companions of the Distinguished Service Order England international rugby union players Yorkshire County RFU players Alumni of St Catharine's College, Cambridge People educated at St Bees School People from Garforth Sportspeople from the City of Leeds Military personnel from Leeds