IDENTITY STATEMENT
Reference code(s): GB 0099 KCLMA Slade
Held at: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London
Title: SLADE, Gp Capt Richard Gordon (1912-1981)
Date(s): Created 1934-1960
Level of description: Collection (fonds)
Extent: 1½ boxes or 0.015 cubic metres
Name of creator(s):
CONTEXT
Administrative/Biographical history:
Born 1912; educated at Dulwich College; joined RAF, 1933; served with No 4 Flying Training School, Abu Suweir, Egypt, 1933-1934, and No 30 Bomber Sqn, Mosul and Habbaniyah, Iraq, 1934-1937; Pilot Officer, 1934; Test Pilot, Aeroplane and Armaments Experimental Establishment, No 24 (Training) Group, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, 1937-1939; Flight Lt, 1938; served in World War Two, 1939-1945; Test Pilot, Aeroplane and Armaments Experimental Establishment, Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, 1939-1941; Wg Cdr, 1941; attached to No 604 Sqn, Middle Wallop, Hampshire, 1941-1942; formed first De Havilland Mosquito Night Fighter Sqn, Castle Camps, Cambridgeshire, 1942; Commanding Officer, No 157 Sqn, Fighter Command, 1942; Commanding Officer, Handling Sqn, Empire Central Flying School, Hullavington, Wiltshire, 1943; Gp Capt, commanding No 157 Sqn and No 85 Sqn, 1944; Commanding Officer, No 169 Sqn, 1944; Commanding Officer, RAF Station, Swannington, Norfolk, Bomber Command, 1944-1945; commanded 148 and 138 Wings, British Air Forces of Occupation, 1945-1946; Chief Test Pilot and Superintendent of Flying, Fairey Aviation Limited, 1946-1959; involved in the establishment of a new World Absolute Speed Record of 1132 miles per hour by a Fairey Delta II, piloted by (Lionel) Peter Twiss, 1956; awarded OBE, 1957; Director, Fairey Aviation Limited, 1959-1960; Director, Fairey Air Surveys Limited, 1959-1972; General Manager, Fairey Hydraulics Limited, 1961-1965; Managing Director, Fairey Hydraulics Limited, 1965-1975; Director, Fairey Filtration Limited, 1970-1972; Chairman, Fairey Hydraulics Limited, 1975-1981; Member, Council of Society of British Aerospace Companies, 1976-1978; Member of the Council of the Confederation of British Industry, 1976-1978; retired 1977; Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society; Liveryman, Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators; died 1981.
CONTENT
Scope and content/abstract:
Two pilot's flying log books, 1933-1937 and 1937-1960. Typescript 'Report on GAF (German Air Force) night fighting from the interrogation of prisoners' by Wing Cdr W K Davison, Officer Commanding 88 Sqn, RAF [1944]; typescript report by James Lansdale Hodson entitled 'Night fighters' [1944]; typescript memorandum by Slade, 'Notes for new crews' [1944]; typescript 'Report on GAF night fighter system. A post mortem' [1945]. Photograph album with uncaptioned photographs of Slade's RAF service in Egypt and Iraq, 1933-1937. Fifteen photographic negatives and 185 photographs, 1933-1960, including aerial photographs of terrain, Iraq, 1934-1937, group photographs, 1942-1945, and Fairey Aviation Limited aircraft in flight [1960], notably the Gannet and the Rotodyne.
ACCESS AND USE
Language/scripts of material: English
System of arrangement:
3 files, 3 volumes.
Conditions governing access:
Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.
Conditions governing reproduction:
Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.
Physical characteristics:
Finding aids:
Summary guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm
ARCHIVAL INFORMATION
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:
Accruals:
Archival history:
Immediate source of acquisition:
Presented to the Centre by the family in 1982.
ALLIED MATERIALS
Existence and location of originals:
Existence and location of copies:
Related material:
Publication note:
DESCRIPTION NOTES
Note:
Decorations: OBE
Date(s) of descriptions: Sep 1998