NEW AIR CHIEF

Evening Star, Issue 24006, 3 October 1941, Page 6

NEW AIR CHIEF

CAREER OF COMMODORE GODDARD The newly-appointed Chief of the Air Staff, Air Commodore R. V. Goddard, C.8.E., R.A.F., who is to succeed Air Commodore H. W. L. Saunders, C.8.E., M.C. R.A.P., was on airship duties with the Grand Fleet and the British Expeditionary Force in France during the Great War, and in the present war was Chief of Staff of the Air Component at British Headquarters in France. Air Commodore Goddard, who is 44 years of age, was educated at the Royal Naval Colleges at Osborne and Dartmouth, and was attached to the airship section of the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915. He was with the Grand Fleet until 1918, and in 1919 and 1920 was associated with rigid airship mooring experiments. He graduated in aeronautical engineering at Cambridge and London after studying from 1921 to 1924. In 1930 and 1931 he was chief instructor of the officers’ engineering course, and commanded No. _3O Squadron of the Royal Air Force in Britain. He passed through the Staff Colleges of Andover and Greenwich in 1929 and 1934. In 1939 Air Commodore Goddard was appointed Deputy-Director of Intelligence and was later the Chief of Staff of the Air Component at British General Headquarters in France. More recently he was Director of Military Co-operation at the Air Ministry. He was a regular commentator in broadcasts through the British Broadcasting Corporation, and was heard at intervals of about three weeks.