Allegiance United Kingdom Battles/wars World War I | Rank Air Commodore Name John Hearson | |
Died 9 January 1964(1964-01-09) (aged 80) Service/branch British Army (to 1918)
Royal Air Force (1918-1927) | ||
Air Commodore John Glanville Hearson CB CBE DSO (5 August 1883 - 9 January 1964) was a World War I squadron and wing commander and senior staff officer in the Royal Flying Corps who reached the rank of brigadier general and became the Royal Air Force's first Director of Training. Remaining in the RAF after the War, he was promoted to air commodore on 30 June 1923. In the first half of the 1920s he held senior positions on RAF Iraq Command, the British organisation responsible for maintaining control of Iraq.
Towards the end of 1925 Hearson was appointed Air Officer Commanding the Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force which later became the Air Defence Group and then No. 1 (Air Defence) Group. Hearson retired from the RAF in 1927 but returned to service in the build up before World War II to establish and command the UK's barrage balloon organisation.