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 Michael Gordon Beavis, (13 August 1929 – 7 June 2020) 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 Support Command from 1981 to 1984.

RAF career

Educated at

Kilburn Grammar School Kilburn Grammar School was an English grammar school which opened in 1898 in Kilburn, north-west London. The school ceased to exist in 1967. History The school's history is detailed in a book by Richard E Brock. It was founded by the Rev. Dr. ...

, Beavis joined the Royal Air Force in 1947 and was commissioned two years later. In June 1961 Beavis set the record for the fastest non-stop flight from the UK to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

which he established by flying a Vulcan from

RAF Scampton Royal Air Force Scampton or RAF Scampton (formerly ) is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, station located adjacent to the A15 road (England), A15 road near to the village of Scampton, Lincolnshire, and north-wes ...

to RAAF Richmond in just over 20 hours. He became

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. 10 Squadron flying

VC10 The Vickers VC10 is a retired mid-sized, narrow-body long-range British jet airliner designed and built by Vickers-Armstrongs, Vickers-Armstrongs (Aircraft) Ltd and first flown at Brooklands, Surrey, in 1962. The VC10 is often compared to th ...

s in 1966 and Group Captain Flying at

RAF Akrotiri Royal Air Force Akrotiri, commonly abbreviated RAF Akrotiri (; ) is a large Royal Air Force (RAF) military airbase on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. It is located in the Western Sovereign Base Area, one of two areas which comprise Akroti ...

in 1968. He was appointed Assistant Director of Defence Policy at the

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

in 1971, Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters

RAF Germany Royal Air Force Germany, commonly known as RAF Germany, and abbreviated RAFG, was a command of the Royal Air Force (RAF) and part of British Forces Germany (BFG). It consisted of units located in Germany, initially in what was known as West G ...

in 1976 and Director General of RAF Training in 1977. He went on to be Commandant of the

RAF Staff College, Bracknell The RAF Staff College at Bracknell was a Royal Air Force staff college active for most of the second half of the 20th century. Its role was the training of staff officers in the administrative, staff and policy aspects of air force matters. It ...

in 1980, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Support Command in 1981 and 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. ...

in 1984 before retiring in 1987.

Family

In 1949 he married Joy Marion Jones; they had one son and one daughter. He died in Cyprus on 7 June 2020.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Beavis, Michael 1929 births 2020 deaths Commanders of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Kilburn Grammar School Royal Air Force air marshals Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)