Frederick Charles Hurrell

Air Vice Marshal Frederick "Freddie" Charles Hurrell, (24 April 1928 – 3 October 2008) was a senior medical officer in the Royal Air Force who spent his 35-year military career in aviation medicine and served as Director-General of the RAF Medical Services from 1986 to 1988. His father died in 1933 and from the age of eight Hurrell was educated at the Royal Masonic School for Boys in Bushey in Hertfordshire where he enjoyed various sports and played rugby for England Schoolboys against Scotland and Wales Schoolboys.

Medical training He began his medical training at St Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington in October 1946, one of only six teenage schoolboys – the others on the course being more than 50 recently demobilised ex-servicemen. He qualified as a doctor in 1952 and worked at Paddington Green Children's Hospital in both medical and surgical house positions, intending to become a paediatrician. On being called up to do National Service in 1953 he joined the Royal Air Force on a four-year short service commission, but went on to serve for 35 years until retiring in 1988. From 1980 to 1982 he was Officer Commanding RAF Princess Alexandra Hospital at RAF Wroughton. This included the time of the Falklands War, when the hospital was the primary destination for casualties from that conflict. and on promotion to air vice marshal in 1984 he was appointed Principal Medical Officer at RAF Strike Command, where he had responsibility for the medical services provided to 51 Royal Air Force stations across the world. In 1984 he was also appointed an Honorary Physician (QHP) to Queen Elizabeth II. In 1986 he was appointed a Commander of the Order of St John of Jerusalem and elected a Fellow of the Faculty of Occupational Medicine (FFOM) and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS) in 1987.