Claude Pelly

Air Chief Marshal Sir Claude Bernard Raymond Pelly GBE, KCB, MC, ADC, RAF (19 August 1902 – 12 August 1972) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during the middle of the 20th century.

RAF career

Claude Pelly started his Air Force career at the RAF College Cranwell in 1920. In 1931 he was deployed to Iraq where he became Air Liaison Officer earning the Military Cross "for distinguished service rendered in the field in connection with military operations in Northern Kurdistan, Iraq during the period December 1931 to June 1932." He served in World War II initially as Head of Intelligence at Headquarters Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force and then as Senior Air Staff Officer for the Desert Air Force.

After the War he became Commandant of the Aeroplane and Armament Experimental Establishment and then Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Technical/Operational Requirements) before joining the Directing Staff at the Imperial Defence College in 1951. He went on to be Commander-in-Chief RAF Middle East Air Force in 1953 and Controller of Aircraft at the Ministry of Supply in 1956. Pelly was appointed Aide-de-camp to the Queen in 1957 and retired as an air chief marshal in 1959.