Herbert Durkin

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Sir Herbert Durkin
Born31 March 1922
Companion of the Order of the Bath

CB (31 March 1922 – 12 April 2004) was an expert on signals and communications who joined the Royal Air Force during World War II
, rising to become one of its senior commanders in the 1970s.

Early and personal life

Sir Herbert was born and brought up in Burnley, Lancashire, attending Burnley Grammar School and then reading Mathematics at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He married Dorothy Hope Johnson in 1951, they had a son and two daughters.[1][2]

RAF career

In 1940 during

Air Officer Commander-in-Chief, RAF India
.

Appointed to a Permanent Commission in the rank of Flight Lieutenant on 16 September 1948, he worked at the Central Bomber Establishment until 1950. Then while based at the

atomic bomb
.

After attending

RAF Technical College, before spending four years at the Deputy Directorate of Technical Services. He was Assistant Chief of Staff (Communications-Electronics) at the Second Allied Tactical Air Force HQ in Germany from 1962 and then Commandant at the No. 2 School of Technical Training, RAF Cosford
1965–67.

In 1967 Sir Herbert became Director of Engineering Policy (RAF) at the

Air Marshal
in 1976. He retired from the RAF on 3 June 1978.

Sir Herbert then took a post as technical adviser to the managing director of Plessey Telecoms, also sitting as a non-executive director on the board of a number of companies. He was President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (IEE) from 1980–1, the first Air Marshal to do so.[1][2][3]

References

  1. ^ a b "Air Marshal Sir Herbert Durkin". Telegraph. 24 April 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  2. ^ a b "DURKIN, Air Marshal Sir Herbert". Who's Who. A & C Black, Oxford University Press. April 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  3. ^ "Air Marshal Sir Herbert Durkin". Air of Authority — A History of the RAF Organisation. www.rafweb.org. Retrieved 17 February 2016.