Richard Atcherley

Air Marshal Sir Richard Llewellyn Roger Atcherley, (12 January 1904 – 18 April 1970) was a senior Royal Air Force officer. He served as Commander-in-Chief of the Royal Pakistan Air Force from 1949 to 1951. His final appointment before retiring from the RAF was Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Flying Training Command.

Early life Richard Atcherley and his twin David were born on 12 January 1904.

They were the sons of Major General Sir Llewellyn Atcherley, Chief Constable of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and his wife, Eleanor Frances "Nelly" Mickelthwait (1871–1957), daughter of Richard Mickelthwait, of Ardsley House, in the valley of Deane near Barnsley. The Atcherley twins were first cousins of William Empson, a literary critic and poet, and both attended Oundle School in Northamptonshire. He initially served as a pilot on No. 29 Squadron, flying Snipes out of Duxford.

Second World War Atcherley was appointed Officer Commanding No. 219 Squadron in October 1939 and then became Officer Commanding the Air Element of the British Expeditionary Force in Norway in May 1940. In 1942 he served as Station Commander at RAF Fairwood Common and then at RAF Kenley. In April 1943 Atcherley became Air Officer Commanding of No. 211 Group at Tripoli in Libya.

Later that year he transferred to Headquarters RAF Fighter Command and in 1944 he moved to Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Air Force in preparation for Operation Overlord. He spent the closing stages of the War as Commandant of the Fighter Leaders' School and then as Commandant of the Central Fighter Establishment.