David Harcourt-Smith

Air Chief Marshal Sir David Harcourt-Smith, (14 October 1931 – 4 August 2024) was a Royal Air Force officer who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Support Command from 1984 to 1986. He is the author of Wings Over Suez, an account of air operations during the Sinai and Suez wars.

RAF career Educated at Felsted School and the Royal Air Force College Cranwell, Harcourt-Smith was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1952. He flew the DH Venom fighter-bomber in the Suez Crisis and Aden Emergency, where he won the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry and devotion to duty in 1957.

Harcourt-Smith was appointed Officer Commanding No. 54 Squadron in 1963 and Officer Commanding No. 6 Squadron in 1969 before moving on to be Station Commander at RAF Bruggen in 1972 and Commandant of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell in 1978. He retired in 1989.