VISCOUNT TRENCHARD (MONUMENT) (Hansard, 30 October 1958)

§ The Prime Minister (Mr. Harold Macmillan)
I beg to move, That this House will, upon Monday next, resolve itself into a Committee to consider an humble Address to Her Majesty, praying that Her Majesty will give directions that a monument be erected at the public charge to the memory of the late Marshal of the Royal Air Force, the Viscount Trenchard, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., D.S.O., D.C.L., LL.D., as an expression of the admiration of this House for his illustrious career and its gratitude for his devoted services to the State. The Royal Air Force has given us many herioc figures. Its traditions have been built up, and its achievements made possible, by the work of many men. The nation owes to the Royal Air Force a debt beyond all measure. In remembering this, let us remember the man whom the Service regard as their father and founder.
The impress of Lord Trenchard's personality and the stamp of his mind are still to he found in every branch and department of the Service. He came to flying after a distinguished career as a soldier. He had served in India, in the South African War and with the West African Frontier Force. He had fought alongside men from many parts of the Commonwealth. He had been decorated for gallantry and had found scope for his outstanding talent for organisation.
When the Royal Flying Corps was formed in 1912, he was already in his fortieth year and nearing the age limit for would-be pilots. But to a mind such as Trenchard's the challenge of the air was irresistible. Within a few months of learning to fly he found himself Chief Staff Officer at the Central Flying School. Here he set the standard of airmanship for the pilots who were to fly with the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War and laid the foundation of that efficiency which is so proudly maintained by the Royal Air Force. If his first contribution was to the efficiency of the new force, his second, in four years of wartime command on the Western Front, lay in fostering that spirit of determination which served the country so decisively a quarter of a century later.
318 In 1918, when the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged into the Royal Air Force, Trenchard became the first Chief of Air Staff. From then on, his work extended to every sphere of Royal Air Force activity. He planned the entry and training of officers and airmen on lines which, when the time came, enabled the small peace-time Royal Air Force to provide a highly skilled nucleus, including the famous "Few", for the enormously expanded force of the Second World War. This system has enabled the Royal Air Force to keep pace with the technical developments of the post-war years.
Cranwell and Halton owe their origins to Lord Trenchard's imagination and foresight. In everything, his concern was with quality. But he knew that no training, however good, could produce the results he aimed at without leadership. It was perhaps in just this field, by setting the example of his own irrepressible enthusiasm, initiative, confidence in the future and devotion to the Service, that he made his greatest contribution of all.
Lord Trenchard served as Chief of Air Staff, with one short break, for eleven years. When he left the Air Ministry in 1930, the Royal Air Force had been established on sure foundations. He had built wisely and he had built well. He served the nation with equal enthusiasm and devotion as Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis for four years. But it is as the great airman that we shall remember him. The statue which we now seek to erect to him will be a visible expression of the honour in which the nation holds him. But the story of the Royal Air Force provides its own memorial to his work.

§ Mr. Hugh Gaitskell (Leeds, South)
On behalf of my right hon. and hon. Friends, I rise to support the Motion moved by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has set out in clear and vigorous language the remarkable career of Lord Trenchard and the debt which we all owe him. He was indeed a man of vision and vigour and, more than any other single person, unquestionably responsible for the creation and the development of the Royal Air Force.
We remember not only his remarkable feat of learning to fly at the age of 40 and becoming, as he did, the first officer 319 in the Royal Flying Corps and, later, the first Marshal of the Royal Air Force, but the vision that he showed in recognising what was to become the immense significance of air power. When we think of the Battle of Britain and of our almost miraculous deliverance in 1940, it is right that we should take fully into account the part that Lord Trenchard played in making that possible.
I came to know him personally only towards the very end of his life, but I recall with pleasure his kindness, his courtesy and his interest in a younger man. He bore unmistakably the stamp of greatness and it is well that we should perpetuate his memory.

§ Mr. J. Grimond (Orkney and Shetland)
The Liberal Party supports this Motion and would like to be associated with everything that has been said both by the Prime Minister and by the Leader of the Opposition.

§ Mr. R. Grant-Ferris (Nantwich)
As a former and very humble member of the Force which Lord Trenchard helped to create, I should like to say how much we all admire my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister for bringing forward this Motion this afternoon. Lord Trenchard formed the Auxiliary Air Force, to which I had the honour to belong and for which he had a very special regard. It formed 40 per cent. of the Battle of Britain pilots, and I am sure that everybody in the country knows how much we owe to him for that. This memorial is a proper mark of our gratitude.