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CHARLES LONGCROFT
Charles Alexander Holcombe Longcroft was born in Llanarth, Wales, on 13th May 1883. Educated at Charterhouse, he was commissioned from Sand- hurst in May 1903 into the Welsh Regiment. After regimental service in India, South Africa and the UK, he paid for flying lessons and was awarded the Royal Aero Club Certificate as the 192nd pilot to qualify in the UK. Immediately he was seconded to the nascent Royal Engineers Air Battalion; this became, a few weeks later, the Royal Flying Corps. In 1913 he was the first recipient of the Britannia Trophy for outstanding flying service after a flight lasting over seven hours, then the longest non- stop flight in Britain.
By the start of the Great War, Longcroft was a Major commanding No 1 Squadron which he took to France for the first months of the war before com- manding 4 Squadron until August 1915. Marked out as an outstanding leader, he was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel then straight to Brigadier a year later, spending much of the war command- ing ever larger RFC formations, finishing as a Major General. He was unusual in that, unlike most other senior RFC officers he continued to fly wherever possible which heightened his reputation with his young pilots. At the end of the war, he was in charge of all flying training, often visiting squad- rons in his personal Sopwith Camel. Awarded the Distinguished Service Order, Air Force Cross and Mentioned in Despatches, he transferred to the newly-formed Royal Air Force. However, like many rapidly-promoted senior officers, he had to revert back to his substantive rank of Lieutenant Colonel before finally climbing the ladder again as a Group Captain, then Air Commodore in August 1919.
On 1st November 1919, Longcroft
became the first Commandant of the
RAF College, Cranwell, as the per-
sonal choice of the head of the RAF,
Lord Tranchard. His mission was “to
strengthen the officer cadre and so
increase the calibre, quality and spirit
of the new service.” The world’s first
air academy accepted its first intake
of 200 cadets in February the follow-
ing year. The English professor at the
time remembered him as obsessed
with three things; hunting, flying and
Cranwell. Staff and cadets remem-
bered him for leading by example and taking an interest in all aspects of college life, for instance playing cricket with the officers and football with
the NCOs. He also believed that traditions were the foundation of a successful institution in a service that was less than two years old. After three-and-a-half years, Longcroft left, having created an establishment that is thriving over a hundred years later. Interviewed in 1955 and asked to comment on the changes over the years, he commented: “None of this
matters – the spirit is still the same.”
Longcroft was promoted to Air Vice Marshal and retired in 1929. He was then appointed Gentleman Usher of the Most Honourable Order of The Bath, a post he held until 1948. He was knighted in 1938 adding to his
long list of decorations. AVM Sir Charles Longcroft KCB CMG DSO AFC died in 1958.
He was unusual in that, unlike most other senior RFC officers he continued to fly wherever possible which heightened his reputation with his young pilots
HISTORICAL 131