1. Lionel Charlton was born on 7 July 1879 at Piccadilly in London.
11 Facts About Lionel Charlton
1. 2.
Lionel Charlton was educated at Brighton College and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Lancashire Fusiliers on 28 September 1898, followed by promotion to lieutenant on 1 September 1899.
3.
Lionel Charlton did not stay long as later the same year he was seconded to serve with the Gold Coast Regiment.
4.
Lionel Charlton was initially as a flight commander on No 3 Squadron and later as the first Officer Commanding of No 8 Squadron.
5.
On 15 April 1915, when No 8 Squadron was grouped with No 13 Squadron to form RFC's new 5th Wing, Lionel Charlton temporarily took command until he travelled to France.
6.
On 2 February 1923, Air Commodore Lionel Charlton took up the post of Chief Staff Officer at the headquarters of the RAF's Iraq Command.
7.
Lionel Charlton opposed this policy and he went on to openly criticize such bombing actions.
8.
On his return to Great Britain, Lionel Charlton expected to be summoned to see the Chief of the Air Staff, Hugh Trenchard.
9.
Lionel Charlton was homosexual and lived with an old RAF friend, Tom Wichelo; he belonged to a circle including Edward Morgan Forster, Joe Ackerley, Raymond Mortimer and John Gielgud.
10.
In recent years, the memory of Lionel Charlton was taken up by opponents of the present war in Iraq, and specifically by British opponents of their country's involvement in that war, who hold him up as an example to be emulated by present-day officers.
11.
Commentator Mike Marqusee in The Guardian expressed the opinion that Lionel Charlton should have had a monument erected in his honour at London, rather than his fellow RAF commander Arthur "Bomber" Harris who conducted the bombings of Iraq without compunction and went on to bomb the German cities in World War II.