Thomas Prickett

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Sir Thomas Prickett
Birth nameThomas Öther Prickett
Born(1913-07-31)31 July 1913
Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
  • Distinguished Service Order
  • Distinguished Flying Cross
  • Second World War and a senior commander in the 1950s and 1960s. He was chief of staff to the air commander, Air Marshal Denis Barnett, for Operation Musketeer (the Anglo-French-Israeli plan for the invasion of Egypt to capture the Suez Canal during the Suez Crisis
    ).

    RAF career

    Educated at

    Second World War initially as a pilot with No. 148 Squadron flying Wellington bombers and latterly as a flight commander with No. 103 Squadron flying Lancaster bombers.[1] He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order following a very successful bombing raid on the Peenemünde Army Research Center.[2][3]

    After the war he was made Station Commander at

    RAF Jever in Germany in 1954.[1] With the Suez Crisis unfolding in autumn 1956, he was appointed Chief of Staff for Operation Musketeer.[1] The planning for the operation was undertaken in great secrecy over a three-month period in a basement office at the Air Ministry.[2]

    Returning to the UK he became Director of Air Staff Briefing at the

    Air Member for Supply and Organisation in 1968 before he retired in 1970.[1]

    In retirement he assisted the Duke of Richmond to redevelop the Goodwood estate.[2]

    Family

    In 1942 he married Betty, an American woman; they had a son and a daughter.[2] Following the death of his first wife, he married Shirley Westerman in 1985;[2] she died in 2023.[5]

    References

    1. ^ a b c d e f g Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Chief Marshal Sir Thomas Prickett
    2. ^ a b c d e "Air Chief Marshal Sir Thomas Prickett". The Telegraph. 26 January 2010.
    3. ^ "No. 36183". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 September 1943. p. 4245.
    4. ^ "No. 43667". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 June 1965. p. 5473.
    5. ^ "Prickett". Register. The Times. No. 74131. London. 24 June 2023. col 3, p. 78.
    Military offices
    Preceded by
    Unknown
    Station Commander RAF Tangmere

    1949–1952
    Succeeded by
    J A Kent
    Preceded by
    G Powell-Shedden
    Station Commander
    RAF Jever

    1954–1955
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by
    Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Near East Air Force
    Commander British Forces Cyprus

    1964–1966
    Succeeded by
    Sir Edward Gordon Jones
    Preceded by Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAF Transport Command
    1967
    Command renamed Air Support Command
    Command formed by renaming RAF Transport Command Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Air Support Command
    1967–1968
    Succeeded by
    Preceded by
    Air Member for Supply and Organisation

    1968–1970
    Succeeded by