10 Facts About Roderic Hill

Roderic Hill was a former Rector of Imperial College and Vice-Chancellor of London University.

Roderic Maxwell Hill was born in Hampstead, London, on 1 March 1894, the eldest of the three children of Michaiah John Muller Hill, professor of mathematics at University College, London, and his wife, Minnie.

Roderic Hill's brother was Geoffrey T R Hill and Sir George Francis Hill was their uncle.

Roderic Hill was commissioned as a 2nd lieutenant in the 12th Northumberland Fusiliers in December 1914, and was posted to France in the second half of 1915.

Roderic Hill first saw intensive combat in the Battle of Loos, where he earned a mention in despatches but suffered a wound in the side.

Roderic Hill remained at Farnborough until 1923, when he attended the RAF Staff College in Andover.

Roderic Hill wrote and illustrated a memoir of his time in Iraq and the Middle East: it gives a lively account of flying the large biplanes of the period over difficult desert terrain, and provides a sharply focussed, and sometimes lyrical description of the landscape and people of the region.

Roderic Hill was appointed Air Officer Commanding No 12 Group in 1943 and then served as Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command from 1943 to 1945.

Befitting of his original ambition to be an architect, Roderic Hill was a talented illustrator.

Roderic Hill died from a coronary thrombosis near St Bartholomew's Hospital.