John Hearson

John Hearson
Born (1883-08-05)5 August 1883
Died 9 January 1964(1964-01-09) (aged 80)
Allegiance United Kingdom
Service/branch British Army (1901–18)
Royal Air Force (1918–40)
Years of service 1901–27
1937–40
Rank Air Commodore
Commands held No. 30 (Balloon Barrage) Group (1937–39)
No. 1 Air Defence Group (1927)
Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force (1925–27)
15th Wing RFC (1916–17)
No. 5 Squadron RFC (1915–16)
Battles/wars First World War
Second World War
Awards Companion of the Order of the Bath
Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Distinguished Service Order
Mentioned in Despatches
Order of Saint Anna, 3rd Class with Swords (Russia)

Air Commodore John Glanville Hearson, CB, CBE, DSO (5 August 1883 – 9 January 1964) was a squadron and wing commander and senior staff officer in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, and a senior commander in the fledgling Royal Air Force (RAF) during the 1920s.

He reached the rank of brigadier general in 1917, and became the RAF's first Director of Training on the service's formation in April 1918. Remaining in the RAF after the war, he was promoted to air commodore on 30 June 1923.[1] In the first half of the 1920s he held senior positions on RAF Iraq Command, the British organisation responsible for maintaining control of Iraq.

Towards the end of 1925 Hearson was appointed Air Officer Commanding the Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force which later became the Air Defence Group and then No. 1 (Air Defence) Group. Hearson retired from the RAF in 1927 but returned to service in the build up before the Second World War to establish and command the UK's barrage balloon organisation.

References

  1. ↑ The London Gazette: no. 32841. p. 4621. 3 July 1923.

External links

Military offices
Preceded by
Guy Livingston		 Chief Staff Officer, HQ Training Division RFC
1917–1918 		Royal Flying Corps subsumed into RAF
New title
RAF established
 Director of Training
1918–1919 		Succeeded by
Philip Game
As Director of Training and Organisation
Vacant
No. 30 Group disbanded from 1919 to 1937
 Air Officer Commanding No. 30 (Balloon Barrage) Group
1937–1939 		Succeeded by
W J Y Guilfoyle
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