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 Peter Carteret Fletcher, (7 October 1916 – 2 January 1999) was 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 who served as Vice-Chief of the Air Staff from 1967 to 1970.

RAF career

Educated at St George's College and

Rhodes University Rhodes University () is a public research university located in Makhanda (formerly Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the prov ...

in South Africa, Fletcher joined the

Royal Rhodesian Air Force The Rhodesian Air Force (RhAF) was an air force based in Salisbury (now Harare) which represented several entities under various names between 1935 and 1980: originally serving the British self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, it was the ...

in 1939 and then transferred to the Royal Air Force.Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Fletcher
/ref> He served in the

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 ...

as officer commanding No. 258 Squadron and as station commander at RAF Belvedere in

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a self-governing British Crown colony in Southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally known as South ...

before joining the Directing Staff RAF Staff College (Overseas) in

Haifa Haifa ( ; , ; ) is the List of cities in Israel, third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropolitan area i ...

. After the war he joined the Directing Staff at the Joint Services Staff College and then became a member of the Joint Planning Staff 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 ...

. He was appointed air

attaché In diplomacy, an attaché () is a person who is assigned ("to be attached") to the diplomatic or administrative staff of a higher placed person or another service or agency. Although a loanword from French, in English the word is not modified ac ...

in Oslo in 1953, a member of the Directing Staff at the

Imperial Defence College 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 ...

in 1956 and station commander at

RAF Abingdon Royal Air Force Abingdon, or more simply RAF Abingdon, is a former Royal Air Force station near Abingdon, Oxfordshire. It is now known as Dalton Barracks and is used by the Royal Logistic Corps. History In 1925, a plan was approved to bui ...

in 1958. He went on to be deputy director of the Joint Planning Staff in 1960, director of Operational Requirements in 1961 and assistant chief of the Air Staff (Policy) in 1964. His last appointments were as air officer commanding No. 38 Group in 1966, vice-chief of the air staff in 1967 and

controller of aircraft Controller Aircraft (CA), originally Controller of Aircraft, is a senior ( 3 star) British Ministry of Defence appointment who is responsible for delivering an airworthy aircraft to the Services, whereupon the Service issues a Release to Servi ...

in 1970 before retiring in 1973. In retirement he was a director of

Hawker Siddeley Hawker Siddeley was a group of British manufacturing companies engaged in list of aircraft manufacturers, aircraft production. Hawker Siddeley combined the legacies of several British aircraft manufacturers, emerging through a series of mergers ...

, director of corporate strategy and planning at

British Aerospace British Aerospace plc (BAe) was a British aircraft manufacturer, aircraft, munitions and defence-systems manufacturer that was formed in 1977. Its head office was at Warwick House in the Farnborough Aerospace Centre in Farnborough, Hampshire. ...

and then a member of the Airbus Industry Supervisory Board.Obituary: Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Carteret Fletcher
''The Independent'', 15 January 1999

Family

In 1940 he married Marjorie Kotze; they had two daughters.

References

, - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Fletcher, Peter 1916 births 1999 deaths Military personnel from Durban Academics of the Royal College of Defence Studies Fellows of the Royal Aeronautical Society Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Officers of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force air marshals Royal Air Force personnel of World War II Air attachés for the United Kingdom