Thomas Shirley

Air Vice Marshal Sir Thomas Ulric Curzon Shirley, (4 June 1908 – 16 January 1982) was a Royal Air Force officer who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Signals Command from 1964 until 1966. In that role he had command of aircraft flying over Eastern Europe monitoring Warsaw Pact signal traffic at the height of the Cold War.

RAF career Shirley became a Royal Air Force cadet at RAF Cranwell in 1928, and was commissioned as a pilot in 1930. He was promoted to flying officer on 26 January 1932 and to flight lieutenant on 26 January 1936.

Shirley served with the Army Cooperation Squadrons until 1936, when he became a Technical Specialist Officer in Signals Communications. He served the Second World War as a Signals Officer at Headquarters RAF Middle East and then as a Staff Officer in the Directorate of Telecommunications at the Air Ministry.

After the war he became deputy director of Signals at the Air Ministry and then Chief Signals Officer at Headquarters Transport Command before becoming Director of Radio Engineering at the Air Ministry in 1950. Air Officer Commanding the RAF Technical College at Henlow in Bedfordshire in January 1957, and Senior Technical Staff Officer at Headquarters Fighter Command in 1959.

Shirley retired in 1966

Shirley served as aide-de-camp to King George VI from 1950 to 1952 and then to Queen Elizabeth II from 1952 to 1953.

Personal life He married Vera Overton. His portrait can be seen in the National Portrait Gallery.