Egbert Cadbury was born in Selly Oak, Birmingham, the youngest son of George Cadbury and his second wife Elizabeth Cadbury, and the grandson of John, the founder of the family confectionary business.
17 Facts About Egbert Cadbury
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Egbert Cadbury was educated at Leighton Park School in Reading, then went to Trinity College, Cambridge to study economics.
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The Cadburys were Quakers, and thus pacifists, but on the outbreak of the war, Cadbury left Cambridge and volunteered to join the Royal Navy, serving as a seaman aboard the HMY Zarifa, a yacht converted to an armed patrol vessel, manned mainly by Cambridge graduates, while his older brother Laurence joined the Friends' Ambulance Unit.
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Egbert Cadbury was eventually commissioned into the Royal Naval Air Service as a probationary flight sub-lieutenant, being confirmed in his rank on 31 May 1915.
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Egbert Cadbury was posted to the Naval Air Station at South Denes, Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, where one of his ground crew was Henry Allingham.
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Egbert Cadbury later complained in a letter to his brother Laurence that the Sopwith gave him "cold feet".
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Egbert Cadbury believed that an aircraft would never shoot down a Zeppelin "unless it catches it unawares".
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Later that month, Cadbury became engaged to Mary Forbes Phillips, the daughter of the Reverend A Forbes Phillips, the vicar of Gorleston.
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On 29 June 1917, Egbert Cadbury was promoted to flight commander.
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On 1 April 1918, the Royal Naval Air Service was merged with the Army's Royal Flying Corps to form the Royal Air Force, and the same day, Egbert Cadbury was appointed a squadron commander with the acting rank of major.
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Egbert Cadbury was attending a charity concert at which his wife was performing when an RAF orderly found him.
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Egbert Cadbury drove back to the airfield, where he was informed that three Zeppelins had been reported about 50 miles to the north-east, and knowing there was only one aircraft available, an Airco DH.
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Apart from his work for Fry's, Egbert Cadbury had many other interests.
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Egbert Cadbury served as a justice of the peace and was chairman of the Bristol Federation of Boys' Clubs for 20 years.
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On 29 August 1939, Egbert Cadbury was appointed honorary air commodore of No 928 Squadron, a Balloon Barrage Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force.
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Egbert Cadbury relinquished his appointment to No 3507 FCU on 11 December 1953, but retained the rank of honorary air commodore.
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Egbert Cadbury was awarded a knighthood in the 1957 New Years Honours List for his "public services in Somerset and Gloucestershire", receiving his accolade from the Queen at Buckingham Palace on 12 February.