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 David Harcourt-Smith, (14 October 1931 – 4 August 2024) was a

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 who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Support Command from 1984 to 1986. He is the author of ''Wings Over Suez'', an account of air operations during the Sinai and Suez wars.

RAF career

Educated at Felsted School and the

Royal Air Force College Cranwell The Royal Air Force College (RAFC) is the Royal Air Force 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 is resp ...

, Harcourt-Smith was commissioned into the

in 1952.Debrett's People of Today 1994 He flew the DH Venom fighter-bomber in the

Suez Crisis The Suez Crisis, also known as the Second Arab–Israeli War, the Tripartite Aggression in the Arab world and the Sinai War in Israel, was a British–French–Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956. Israel invaded on 29 October, having done so w ...

and

Aden Emergency The Aden Emergency, also known as the 14 October Revolution () or as the Radfan Uprising, was an armed rebellion by the National Liberation Front (South Yemen), National Liberation Front (NLF) and the Front for the Liberation of Occupied South ...

, where he won the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in 1957. Harcourt-Smith 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. 54 Squadron in 1963 and Officer Commanding No. 6 Squadron in 1969 before moving on to be Station Commander at RAF Bruggen in 1972 and Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1978. He went on to be Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operational Requirements) in 1980, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Support Command in 1984 and Controller of Aircraft in 1986. As Controller of Aircraft he oversaw the introduction of the Tucano training aircraft. He retired in 1989.

Personal life and death

In 1957 Harcourt-Smith married Dorothy Mary Entwistle; they had two sons and one daughter. He died on 4 August 2024, at the age of 92.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harcourt-Smith, David 1931 births 2024 deaths Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Felsted School Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force air marshals Commandants of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell