13 Facts About Thomas Elmhirst

Thomas Elmhirst later became the Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Guernsey from 1953 to 1958.

Thomas Elmhirst was the fourth of eight boys and had one younger sister.

Thomas Elmhirst celebrated the armistice by flying an airship under the Menai Bridge with his friend Gordon Campbell as his passenger.

Thomas Elmhirst then became part of the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1919.

Between the wars Thomas Elmhirst trialled the first gyroscopic compass for aircraft in the RAF and became Air Attache to Turkey in the run up to the Second World War.

Thomas Elmhirst then commanded the Egypt Command Group under Air Marshal Tedder before becoming second-in-command of the Desert Air Force.

Thomas Elmhirst continued in this role through the battle of Alamein until after the Allied invasion of Sicily.

Thomas Elmhirst was then second-in-command of British Air Forces in North West Europe until the end of the war, serving in D-Day, Normandy, the Ardennes and the advance across the France and Germany.

In 1953, Thomas Elmhirst ran Operation Totem, the first British nuclear bomb land tests in Emu Field, Australia.

Thomas Elmhirst held the post for five years, retiring in 1958.

Thomas Elmhirst married firstly Katherine Gordon Black, daughter of William Black, on 16 December 1930, and had two children before Katherine's death in 1965:.

Thomas Elmhirst died at Dummer, Hampshire, on 6 November 1982, in his 87th year.

Thomas Elmhirst was survived by his second wife, and his children and grandchildren from his first marriage.