Alec Coryton

Air Chief Marshal Sir William Alec Coryton KCB, KBE, MVO, DFC (16 February 1895 – 20 October 1981), known as Alec Coryton, was a senior Royal Air Force commander in the Second World War.

Life

Originally commissioned as an officer into the British Army's Rifle Brigade (Special Reserve), Coryton transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a lieutenant in 1918. When the RFC became the Royal Air Force, he resigned his Army commission and became a Royal Air Force officer.

From 1925 to 1928, he was Officer Commanding 16 Squadron, based at Old Sarum, Wiltshire, operating the Bristol F.2 Fighter in the tactical reconnaissance role.

On 25 April 1942 he became Air Officer Commanding No. 5 Group RAF. It has been claimed that the then Air Commodore Coryton was sacked by Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris for refusing to send a small force of Lancasters from his group on a sneak raid to Berlin in poor weather conditions.

In February 1943 Coryton moved to the Air Staff at the Air Ministry and was appointed Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Operations) in 1944.