Wilfrid Freeman

Air Chief Marshal Sir Wilfrid Rhodes Freeman, 1st Baronet, (18 July 1888 – 15 May 1953) was one of the most important influences on the rearmament of the Royal Air Force (RAF) in the years up to and including the Second World War. He was part of the delegation that accompanied Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Atlantic Conference, birthplace of the Atlantic Charter.

RAF career Having joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1914, he saw active service during the First World War as Officer Commanding No. 14 Squadron and then as Officer Commanding 10 Wing and then 9 Wing, and continued to serve in the newly formed RAF during the inter-war years. He was made Commandant of the Central Flying School in 1925, deputy director of Operations and Intelligence at the Air Ministry in 1927 and Station Commander at RAF Leuchars in 1928.

More perhaps than any other single figure, Freeman was responsible for the RAF ordering the Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire, De Havilland Mosquito, Avro Lancaster, Handley-Page Halifax and Hawker Tempest. He played an equally vital role in the development of the Merlin-engined P-51 Mustang, providing North American Aviation with the original specification and then installing Rolls-Royce Merlin engines in place of the unsatisfactory Allison V-1710 engines. Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB – 20 October 1942, KCB – 11 May 1937, CB – 1 January 1932 ) Distinguished Service Order – 23 November 1916 Military Cross – 27 March 1915 Mention in Despatches – 22 June 1915, 25 September 1916, 11 December 1917 Chevalier of the Legion of Honour (France) – 17 August 1918 Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society