Ralph Sorley

Air Marshal Sir Ralph Squire Sorley, KCB, OBE, DSC, DFC, FRAeS, FRSA (9 January 1898 – 17 November 1974) was a World War I pilot with the Royal Naval Air Service and the Royal Air Force, who was also a senior commander during World War II. After the War he held several senior RAF appointments until his retirement in 1948 in the rank of Air Marshal. and in 1947 was made a Commander of the Legion of Merit of the United States of America.

He was instrumental in the specification of the armament of both the Supermarine Spitfire and the Hawker Hurricane, he founded the Empire Test Pilots' School, foresaw the need for air-to-air missiles in the post-World War II world and, having left the RAF to join De Havilland, provided the RAF with such a weapon system.

Career

Sorley joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1914. He served with distinction as a pilot in World War I, earning his DSC "for the determined and successful bombing attacks on the "Breslau" and "Goeben" on 20 January 1918,and subsequent days, both by day and by night." In the immediate post-war years he served in Iraq and Palestine before returning in 1924 to join the staff of the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment in Felixstowe.