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Edgar Reynolds

OBE
Pilot seated in open-framed biplane, shaking hands with a man in military uniform who wears a peaked cap
RAAF Point Cook, c. 1916. Lt Col. Edgar Reynolds (standing, right), foundation CO of 1 Squadron AFC shakes hands with Lt Eric Harrison (left), who is in the cockpit of a Bristol Boxkite.
Born(1878-10-20)October 20, 1878
Paddington, New South Wales, Australia
DiedAugust 28, 1965(1965-08-28) (aged 86)
Allegiance Australia
Service/branchAustralian Flying Corps
Rank Lieutenant-Colonel
Commands held Australian Flying Corps
Battles/wars World War I

Lieutenant-Colonel Edgar Hercules Reynolds OBE [1] (20 October 1878 – 28 August 1965) commanded the Australian Flying Corps (AFC) during World War I. Reynolds' role was mostly administrative, [2] as AFC squadrons were usually subordinate to Australian ground forces or British air commands.

Reynolds was born in Paddington, Sydney in 1878.

In 1901, he was commissioned as a probationary Second Lieutenant in the NSW Military Forces (prior to the formation of the Australian Army). [3]

Reynolds attended the British Army Staff College, Camberley (1911–13), where he developed an interest in military aviation. At Camberley, he was instructed by, among others Robert Brooke-Popham (a future Air Chief Marshal of the RAF) and wrote papers on the use of aircraft in artillery spotting. [4]

In March 1914, Reynolds – at the time a Major – was appointed General Staff Officer in charge of a branch covering "Intelligence, Censorship, and Aviation" within the Army's Department of Military Operations. [5] [6] Following the outbreak of World War I and the expansion of the Army, aviation later became a separate branch commanded by Reynolds.

From 1916, Reynolds also took direct command of No. 1 Squadron at RAAF Point Cook, near Melbourne. Later that year, he travelled to the Middle East with the squadron, before assuming the post of Staff Officer for Aviation at Australian Imperial Force Headquarters in London. [7]

References

  1. ^ Australian War Memorial, n.d., Honours and Awards Edgar Hercules Reynolds, Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, 23 July 1919, p. 1171, pos. 41; London Gazette, 15 April 1919, p. 4982, pos. 1.
  2. ^ Molkentin, Michael Fire in the Sky: The Australian Flying Corps in the First World War, 2010; Sydney, Allen & Unwin, pp. 26–32
  3. ^ Sydney Morning Herald, 22 June 1901, p. 16.
  4. ^ Lax, Mark. 2000. "A Hint of Things to Come – Leadership in the Australian Flying Corps", in Sutherland, Barry (ed), Command and Leadership in War and Peace 1914–1975: The Proceedings of the 1999 RAAF History Conference. Canberra, Air Power Studies Centre.
  5. ^ Weekly Times 1914, p. 26.
  6. ^ The West Australian 1914, p. 8.
  7. ^ Cutlack, Frederic Morley. The Australian Flying Corps in the Western and Eastern Theatres of War, 1914–1918 (Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918, volume VIII, 1941 (11th ed.), Canberra, Australian War Memorial, pp. 32, 35.

Works cited

  • "News in Brief". Weekly Times. Melbourne. 7 March 1914. p. 26. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
  • "Eastern Australia: Items By Mail". The West Australian. 16 March 1914. p. 8. Retrieved 25 August 2013.
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