Marshal Of The Royal Air Force

Sir Dermot Alexander Boyle, GCB KCVO KBE AFC

A long and distinguished career with the RAF, serving during WW2

Dermot Alexander Boyle, air force officer: born Abbeyleix, Ireland 2 October 1904; AFC 1939; Air ADC to the King 1943; Air Commodore 1944; CBE 1945, KBE 1953; CB 1946, GCB 1957; Director-General of Personnel, Air Ministry 1948-49, Director-General of Manning 1949-51; Air Vice-Marshal 1949; AOC, No 1 Group Bomber Command 1951-53; KCVO 1953; AOC-in-C, Fighter Command 1953-55; Air Marshal 1954; Air Chief Marshal 1956; Chief of the Air Staff 1956-59; Marshal of the Royal Air Force 1958; Vice-Chairman, British Aircraft Corporation 1962-71; Deputy Chairman, RAF Benevolent Fund 1971- 80; married 1931 Una Carey (two sons, one daughter, and one son deceased); died Sway, Hampshire 5 May 1993. Dermot Boyle, who held the post of Chief of the Air Staff in the later 1950s, was recalled by the Royal Air Force as one of its most charismatic leaders. Totally dedicated to the Service, he held office during the Suez campaign of 1956 and then had to deal with the crisis of confidence created by the Sandys defence review. To predict, as Duncan Sandys did, that the advent of the missile would mean the end of the manned fighter aircraft represented a challenge to the very existence of the RAF, and Boyle's successful resistance to it was his greatest achievement.

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