Sir Charles Orr's Memoirs Volume 3

Geoffrey Salmond

Geoffrey Salmond joined the British Army, undertaking his officer training at Royal Military Academy Woolwich around 1897. He was commissioned into the Royal Artillery on 23 June 1898 and saw active service during the Second Boer War. He took part in the relief of Ladysmith and the operations on the Tugela Heights. He received he Queen's Medal and seven clasps, then on 10 November 1900 he was sent to China and gained a medal for the operations during the Boxer Rebellion there. He was seconded to study Japanese on 2 May 1905 and promoted to captain on 2 December 1905. He was then appointed Adjutant with the Royal Field Artillery on 4 February 1908.
He joined the reserve of the Royal Flying Corps on 17 April 1913. He became a staff office at the War Office on 31 July 1913, a staff officer in the Directorate of Military Aeronautics on 31 August 1913 and then a staff officer at Headquarters Royal Flying Corps in France on 4 August 1914. Salmond went on to take up the post of Officer Commanding No. 1 Squadron RFC on 26 January 1915. He was appointed a wing commander on 18 August 1915[ and sent to command the Fifth Wing in Egypt in November 1916. In July 1916, Salmond was promoted to temporary brigadier general and given command of the RFC in the Middle East.
While holding the command of the Middle East, he had laid out an airway from Cairo to South Africa, clearing a chain of aerodromes in Central Africa. His idea was to send a demonstration flight or flights of RAF aircraft across Africa, thus providing the link of which Cecil Rhodes had dreamed in a Cape-to-Cairo railway.
Salmond was awarded a permanent commission in the Royal Air Force as a major general in August 1919 (shortly afterwards redesignated as an air vice marshal). On 23 February 1922 Salmond returned to Great Britain to take up the post of Director-General of Supply and Research at the Air Ministry. The following year, his post was renamed Air Member for Supply and Research and he remained as the head of Supply and Research for the RAF until late 1926. He was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1926 Birthday Honours.
Salmond's next appointment was as Air Officer Commanding India in December 1926. That month, eight years after producing the flight path from Egypt to India, he boarded Imperial's first planned passenger flight from Croydon to Karachi. In late 1928 and early 1929, he directed the evacuation from Kabul of British embassy staff and others. He was promoted to air marshal on 1 July 1929. In September 1931, Salmond returned from India to take up command of the Air Defence of Great Britain organization which was responsible for British air defences, including both fighters and bombers. He was promoted to air chief marshal several months later on 1 January 1933.
On 1 April 1933, Air Chief Marshal Salmond took over from his brother John as Chief of the Air Staff. Salmond had become severely unwell and days later (5 April) arrangements were announced for Sir John Salmond to resume the RAF's senior post temporarily. Salmond died on 27 April 1933.

Charles Orr's Memoirs Volume 3