Air Chief MarshalAir Chief Marshal is a senior air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
Sir Arthur Murray Longmore GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
,
DSOThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.The DSO was instituted on 6 September 1886 by...
(8 October 1885 – 10 December 1970) was an early naval aviator, before reaching high rank in the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
.
Born in
St Leonards, New South Walesthumb|right|270px|The Forum apartmentsSt Leonards is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. St Leonards is located 5 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of Municipality of Lane...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, the son of Charles Croker Longmore and Janet Murray, he was educated at Benges School, Hertford and
Foster's Academy, StubbingtonStubbington House School was founded as a boys' preparatory school, originally located in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, now part of the borough of Fareham.The school was founded, in 1841, by Reverend William Foster, as "Foster's Naval Academy"...
before entering
Dartmouth Naval CollegeBritannia Royal Naval College is the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy, located on a hill overlooking Dartmouth, Devon, England. While Royal Naval officer training has taken place in the town since 1863, the buildings which are seen today were only finished in 1905, with...
. He was commissioned into the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
in 1904. Having developed an interest in flying, he obtained his flying certificate in 1911 and joined the
Royal Naval Air ServiceThe Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...
in 1912.
Air Chief MarshalAir Chief Marshal is a senior air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
Sir Arthur Murray Longmore GCBThe Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the medieval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...
,
DSOThe Distinguished Service Order is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, and formerly of other Commonwealth countries, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typically in actual combat.The DSO was instituted on 6 September 1886 by...
(8 October 1885 – 10 December 1970) was an early naval aviator, before reaching high rank in the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
.
Biography
Born in
St Leonards, New South Walesthumb|right|270px|The Forum apartmentsSt Leonards is a suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. St Leonards is located 5 kilometres north-west of the Sydney central business district and lies across the local government areas of Municipality of Lane...
,
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
, the son of Charles Croker Longmore and Janet Murray, he was educated at Benges School, Hertford and
Foster's Academy, StubbingtonStubbington House School was founded as a boys' preparatory school, originally located in the Hampshire village of Stubbington, now part of the borough of Fareham.The school was founded, in 1841, by Reverend William Foster, as "Foster's Naval Academy"...
before entering
Dartmouth Naval CollegeBritannia Royal Naval College is the initial officer training establishment of the Royal Navy, located on a hill overlooking Dartmouth, Devon, England. While Royal Naval officer training has taken place in the town since 1863, the buildings which are seen today were only finished in 1905, with...
. He was commissioned into the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
in 1904. Having developed an interest in flying, he obtained his flying certificate in 1911 and joined the
Royal Naval Air ServiceThe Royal Naval Air Service or RNAS was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of the First World War, when it merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps to form a new service , the Royal Air Force...
in 1912. He subsequently obtained a permanent commission in the
Royal Air ForceThe Royal Air Force is the United Kingdom's air force, the oldest independent air force in the world. Formed on 1 April 1918, the RAF has taken a significant role in British military history ever since, playing a large part in World War II and in more recent conflicts.The RAF operates almost 1,109...
, serving in (among other places) Italy,
IraqIraq Command was the RAF-led inter-service command in charge of all British forces in Iraq in the 1920s and early 1930s, during the period of the British Mandate of Mesopotamia...
and
RAF Coastal CommandRAF Coastal Command was a formation within the Royal Air Force. The service came to prominence during the Second World War. It defended the United Kingdom from naval threats and countered them by air. Coastal Command was often referred to as the "Cinderella Service" as a result of the comments made...
.
The outbreak of the
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including all great powers, organized into two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
found Longmore an
Air Chief MarshalAir Chief Marshal is a senior air officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...
and in charge of
RAF Training CommandTraining Command was the RAF's command responsible for flying and ground training. Training Command was formed from Inland Area on 1 May 1936 and absorbed into RAF Support Command on 13 June 1977...
. On 2 April 1940, he was appointed
Air Officer CommandingAir Officer Commanding is a title given in the air forces of Commonwealth nations to an air officer who holds a command appointment. Thus, an air vice marshal might be the AOC 38 Group. An air officer heading a particularly large or important command may be called an Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief...
in the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. He did not long enjoy the full confidence of
Winston ChurchillSir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill KG, OM, CH, TD, FRS, PC was a British politician known chiefly for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II. He served as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945 and again from 1951 to 1955. A noted statesman and orator, Churchill was also an officer...
in that position and was relieved of his command in May 1941. His last role before his formal retirement in 1942 was as
Inspector-General of the RAFThe Inspector-General of the RAF was a senior appointment in the Royal Air Force, responsible for the inspection of airfields. The post existed from 1918 to 1920 and from 1935 until the late 1960s....
. He was subsequently Vice-Chairman of the
Commonwealth War Graves CommissionThe Commonwealth War Graves Commission is an intergovernmental organisation of six independent member states established through Royal Charter to mark, record and maintain the graves and places of commemoration of Commonwealth of Nations military forces killed during the two World Wars...
.
Longmore’s memoirs,
From Sea to Sky 1910-1945, were published in 1946.
In 1913 Longmore married Marjorie Maitland, the daughter of William James Maitland C.I.E. One of their sons, Wing Commander Richard Maitland Longmore OBE, was killed in action on 4 October 1943, in the course of an attack on a
U-boatU-boat is the anglicized version of the German word , itself an abbreviation of Unterseeboot , and refers to military submarines operated by Germany, particularly in World War I and World War II...
.
Longmore died in North Surrey, England on 10 December 1970.
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