Thomas Elmhirst
| Sir Thomas Elmhirst | |
|---|---|
| Born |
15 December 1895 Yorkshire, England |
| Died | 6 November 1982 (aged 86) Dummer, Hampshire, England |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |
Royal Navy (1908–18) Royal Air Force (1918–50) |
| Years of service | 1908–50 |
| Rank | Air Marshal |
| Commands held |
Commander-in-Chief, Indian Air Force (1947–50) AHQ Egypt (1942–43) No. 202 Group (1941–42) RAF Abingdon (1935–37, 1939–40) RAF Leconfield (1939) No. 14 Squadron (1934–35) |
| Battles/wars |
First World War Second World War |
| Awards |
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire Companion of the Order of the Bath Air Force Cross Knight of the Order of St John Mentioned in Despatches (4) Grand Officer of the Order of the Crown (Belgium) Croix de guerre (Belgium) Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States) Commander of the Legion of Honour (France) Croix de guerre (France) |
| Spouse(s) | Katherine Gordon Black (m. 1930–65; her death) Marian Ferguson (m. 1968–82; his death) |
| Relations | Leonard Knight Elmhirst (brother) |
Air Marshal Sir Thomas Walker Elmhirst, KBE, CB, AFC, DL (15 December 1895 – 6 November 1982) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force in the first half of the 20th century and the first commander-in-chief of the newly independent Indian Air Force where he organised the funeral of Mahatma Gandhi following his assassination in 1948. He later became the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Guernsey from 1953 to 1958.
Thomas Elmhirst was born on 15 December 1895 to Reverend William Heaton Elmhirst (b. 1856) and Mary Elmhirst (née Knight) (b. 1863), a landed gentry family in Yorkshire, where the family seat is Houndhill. He was the fourth of eight boys and had one youngest sister. The children were:
Elmhirst studied at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne, Isle of Wight in 1908, and at Dartmouth in Devon.
In April 1912, Elmhirst joined his first ship, HMS Cornwall. He was commissioned as a midshipman in the Royal Navy in 1913 and was posted to HMS Indomitable in the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron under David Beatty. When war came he served on HMS Indomitable as the ship took part in the initial bombardment of the Turkish Dardanelles forts and the Battle of Dogger Bank, where he commanded 'X Gun Turret', the last one to fire at the German ship SMS Blücher before it sank. In 1915 he was selected to be in the first draft of the Royal Naval Air Service where he served until the end of the First World War. He celebrated the armistice by flying an airship (SSZ73) under the Menai Bridge with his friend Gordon Campbell as his passenger. By 1917, he was promoted to flight lieutenant and by March 1918 to major, commanding the Naval Airship Patrol Station at Anglesey in Wales. He then became part of the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1919.
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