Charles Edmonds

Interbellum Edmonds received further awards after the war. On 1 January 1919 he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, and on 8 February was granted permission to wear the insignia of an Officer of the Order of the Crown of Italy. On 1 April 1919 Edmonds, now a lieutenant colonel (acting brigadier general), left the staff, reverting to flying status. On 1 August 1919 he was awarded a permanent commission in the RAF with the rank of major (squadron leader).

After a period on half-pay, on 16 February 1920 Edmonds was appointed Officer Commanding, Storage Station, Brockworth, then on 1 May was appointed to serve on the staff of No. 7 Group. until 1 November 1921, when he was temporarily attached to the Air Pilotage School as a supernumerary officer before joining RAF Staff College as an instructor on 1 April 1922, having been promoted to wing commander on 1 January.

Edmonds was one of the first instructors at the Staff College, which was opened under the command of Air Commodore Robert Brooke-Popham. The Directing Staff also included Air Commodore Robert Clark-Hall, Group Captain Philip Joubert de la Ferté, Wing Commander Wilfrid Freeman, and Squadron Leader Bertine Sutton, while the first class of students included Wing Commanders Jack Baldwin and Richard Peirse, Squadron Leaders Conway Pulford, Keith Park, Wilfred McClaughry and Charles Portal, and Flight Lieutenants Eric Betts, Harold Kerby and John Cole-Hamilton. Edmonds won the R. M. Groves Memorial Essay prize for his paper on A Forecast of Aerial Development in June 1922, and on 12 December 1923, by arrangement with the Royal Aeronautical Society, presented a paper before the Royal United Service Institution on the subject of Air Strategy.

On 4 May 1925 Edmonds was appointed Officer Commanding, Armament and Gunnery School, before being seconded for duty as the RAF Member of the British Naval Mission to Greece, serving there from 15 March 1927 until 15 March 1929. He then completed the Royal Navy Senior Officer's War Course, On 6 August 1929 he was appointed Officer Commanding, RAF Worthy Down, and also won the R. M. Groves Memorial Essay prize for a second time.

He served as Officer Commanding, No. 21 (Training) Group from 7 August 1931, On 1 March 1932 he was appointed Deputy Director of Manning. He also came third in the Gordon Shephard Memorial Essay competition. Edmonds then served the Directorate of Personal Services until 1 February 1938, when he transferred to the Deputy Directorate of Plans. Appointed acting air vice marshal on 18 May 1942, he then served as Senior Air Staff Officer at Combined Operations HQ from June, and then as Air Officer in Charge of Administration at Fighter Command HQ from 13 November 1942. On 18 May 1943 his temporary rank of air commodore was made war substantive. On 15 November 1943 he was appointed Air Officer in Charge of Administration at the Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Air Force. relinquishing his acting rank of air vice marshal on 15 December 1944. On 1 January 1945 he received a mention in despatches, and on 8 January was appointed Air Officer in Charge of Administration, RAF Flying Training Command, regaining his acting rank of air vice marshal.

On 12 June 1945 he received, from Poland, the Order of Polonia Restituta, Second Class, and again on 7 August relinquished his acting rank of air vice-marshal. Edmonds retired from the RAF, retaining the rank of air vice-marshal, on 3 October 1945. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Merit by the United States on 9 October.

Personal life

On 5 April 1917 Edmonds married Lorna Karim Chadwick Osborn, the daughter of Colonel Osborn, Royal Artillery, at the Church of St. John the Evangelist, Paddington. They had three children, including Robert Humphrey Gordon Edmonds, a diplomat and writer.

Charles Edmonds is buried in Brookwood Cemetery.