Trenchard, Marshal of the RAF Sir Hugh (1873-1956), a crucial figure in the early development of British air power, though mainly as a shrewd political fighter rather than as a theorist. He achieved his wings shortly before his 40th birthday and was one of twenty pilots included in the Royal Flying Corps in 1912. By 1918 Trenchard had become chief of the air staff of the newly created RAF and was reappointed to the position in 1919 to guide the RAF through the retrenchment of the 1920s. Trenchard believed that strategic bombing was the future of warfare, but recognized that in fiscally stringent times such thinking was not popular. Instead he developed the policy of cost-effective aerial imperial policing to stave off efforts from the army and the navy to second the RAF to their purposes. When Trenchard retired in 1929 the independence of the RAF was secure, but so was the fatally grandiose doctrine that strategic bombing could win a war unaided. He was the first officer to hold the five-star rank of marshal of the RAF. His nickname ‘Boom’ referred to his loud voice, not to the products of his bombers.

Bibliography

• Ferris, John, The Evolution of British Strategic Policy, 1919-1926 (London, 1989).
• Gooch, John, Airpower: Theory and Practice (London, 1995)

— John Buckley

Trenchard, Hugh, 1st Viscount Trenchard (1873-1956). Soldier and airman. ‘Boom’ Trenchard began his service career as an infantryman. By 1912, when he learned to fly, he was a major whose career appeared to be going nowhere. But by 1915 he was a major-general in command of the Royal Flying Corps in France. When the Royal Air Force was established as the world's first independent air force in 1918, Trenchard became its first professional head as chief of air staff, a post he held with only a brief interruption until 1929.

Viscount, 1873–1956, British air marshal. He entered the army in 1893 and served in the South African War. During World War I he commanded the Royal Flying Corps. As chief of air staff (1918, 1919–29), Trenchard shaped the offensive air strategy (to the neglect of air defense) that the Royal Air Force adhered to into World War II. He was (1931–35) commissioner of the London police force and was created a peer in 1936.

Bibliography

See biography by A. Boyle (1962).

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