Air Marshal Clifford Rodney Spink, (born 17 May 1946) is a retired senior

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

officer, who is now a

Spitfire The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. Many variants of the Spitfire were built, from the Mk 1 ...

display pilot on the national air display circuit. The first Spitfire he ever flew belonged to the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, during his tenure as Station Commander of

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 ho ...

. He also served as the 23rd Commandant of the

Royal Observer Corps The Royal Observer Corps (ROC) was a civil defence organisation intended for the visual detection, identification, tracking and reporting of aircraft over Great Britain. It operated in the United Kingdom between 29 October 1925 and 31 Decembe ...

, the last but one officer to hold the post.

Royal Air Force career

Spink joined the Royal Air Force in the spring of 1963 with the 104th entry of the

Aircraft Apprentice Scheme The Aircraft Apprentice Scheme was a training programme for Royal Air Force ground crew personnel which ran from 1920 to 1966. Formation World War I saw the beginning of aerial combat. By 1 April 1918 the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval ...

No. 1 School of Technical Training The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...

RAF Halton Royal Air Force Halton, or more simply RAF Halton, is one of the largest Royal Air Force stations in the United Kingdom. It is located near the village of Halton near Wendover, Buckinghamshire. The site has been in use since the First World ...

. On passing out of Halton, in the spring of 1966, in the rank of Sgt Aircraft Apprentice, he was granted a flying commission at the

RAF College Cranwell The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force military academy which provides initial training to all RAF personnel who are preparing to become commissioned officers. The College also provides initial training to aircrew cadets and ...

, and initially learned to fly on the Jet Provost. Later training took place on the

Gnat A gnat () is any of many species of tiny flying insects in the dipterid suborder Nematocera, especially those in the families Mycetophilidae, Anisopodidae and Sciaridae. They can be both biting and non-biting. Most often they fly in large n ...

and the

Hunter Hunting is the human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, or killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to harvest food (i.e. meat) and useful animal products (fur/ hide, bone/tusks, horn/antler, et ...

, before Spink was posted to his first productive tour on No. 111 Squadron flying the

Lightning Lightning is a naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average ...

. Spink was later posted to No. 56 Squadron in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

before returning to No. 111 Squadron. Spink served as the Commanding Officer of

No. 74 Squadron Number 74 Squadron, also known as "Tiger Squadron" from its tiger-head motif, was a squadron (aviation), squadron of the Royal Air Force. It operated fighter aircraft from 1917 to the 1990s, and then trainers until its disbandment in 2000. It w ...

before being posted to the South Atlantic in 1989 as the Officer Commanding

RAF Mount Pleasant RAF Mount Pleasant (also known as Mount Pleasant Airport, Mount Pleasant Complex or MPA) is a Royal Air Force station in the British Overseas Territory of the Falkland Islands. The airfield goes by the motto of "Defend the right" (while the ...

on the British Overseas Territory of the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

. In 1990 Spink underwent conversion training to the

Tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, alt ...

before becoming Station Commander at

. In 1991 Spink served as the RAF's Tornado Detachment Commander during the first

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

. After attending the

Royal College of Defence Studies The Royal College of Defence Studies (RCDS) instructs the most promising senior officers of the British Armed Forces, His Majesty's Diplomatic Service and Civil Service in national defence and international security matters at the highest level ...

, he became Senior Air Staff Officer of No. 11 Group in March 1993, Chief of Staff of No. 18 Group in 1995 and Air Officer Commanding No. 11/18 Group in 1996. Spink also served as the last but one

Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps The Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps (CROC) was the Royal Air Force commander of the Royal Observer Corps. All the holders of the post were RAF officers in the rank of Air Commodore, initially retired reserve officers then Auxiliary off ...

, from 1993 until 1995. Spink remains the honorary President of the Royal Observer Corps Association. He is a Vice-Patron of the Royal Air Force Halton Apprentices Association

Old Haltonians The Old Haltonian Association, which was founded by Lieutenant Colonel AFS Cardwell in 1925, was an important feature of the earliest years of the Royal Air Force's Apprentice training at the No. 1 School of Technical Training. The objects of ...

Since the RAF

Spink currently flies a restored Spitfire XVIe TD248. This is a former "gate guardian" from RAF Sealand which was rebuilt by Historic Flying Limited about 15 years ago. It initially appeared in a postwar No. 41 Squadron colour scheme but it has recently been repainted in wartime colours with the personal markings 'CR-S'. Since retiring from the RAF he has formed his own Company, "Spitfire Limited", dealing in a range of aviation interests.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Spink, Clifford Rodney Alumni of the Royal College of Defence Studies Royal Air Force air marshals Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Living people People of the Royal Observer Corps Companions of the Order of the Bath Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Royal Air Force personnel of the Gulf War 1946 births Trenchard Brats