Elworthy, Samuel Charles Elworthy

▪ 1994

      BARON, New Zealand-born marshal (ret.) of the British Royal Air Force (b. March 23, 1911, Timaru, N.Z.—d. April 4, 1993, Christchurch, N.Z.), was in the top military ranks—as commander in chief in the Middle East (1960-63), chief of air staff (1963-67), and chief of defense staff (1967-71)—during a period when the U.K. was redefining its role in NATO and the world. Elworthy studied law at Trinity College, Cambridge (M.A., 1933), and was called to the bar (1935), but he quit to take a permanent commission in the RAF (1936). During World War II he was a highly decorated bomber pilot and leader. After the war he planned and taught bomber tactics and helped organize the military in newly independent India and Pakistan. In 1960 he was sent to Aden (now in Yemen) to stabilize the region, and it was in large part his quick, preemptive show of force in Kuwait that deterred a threatened Iraqi invasion the next year. He was promoted to marshal of the RAF in 1967. As air chief and then defense chief, Elworthy presided over a decrease in British military power, spending cutbacks, and growing concern over Soviet hegemony and the emergency in Northern Ireland. After retiring from the RAF, he was constable and governor of Windsor Castle (1971-78) and lord lieutenant of Greater London (1973-78). Elworthy was knighted in 1961 and created a life peer in 1972. He returned to private life in New Zealand in 1978.

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