Edye Rolleston Manning

Air Commodore Edye Rolleston Manning (14 February 1889 – 26 April 1957) was an Australian-born senior officer in the Royal Air Force. In the early days of the Second World War he was tasked with establishing a string of airfields in the Far East from Lashio to Mingladon.

Early life Edye Rolleston Manning was born in Australia on 14 February 1889, the son of William Alexander Manning, a solicitor practising in Sydney, Australia. He was educated at Bedford Modern School in England before going on to study medicine at the University of Edinburgh. Frustrated by the stalemate of trench warfare he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps where he attained RAeC Certificate No. 2253 on 9 October 1916. He was wounded at the Battle of the Somme in July 1916 while serving with No. 3 Squadron. He got as far as Tunis before crashing at Lebda; Manning was uninjured but his plane was a write-off and he was forced to abandon the attempt. and RAF Manston (1933) before retiring in 1935 to become a stockbroker in Sydney. In January 1942 he was appointed Air Commodore of the Group.