Sir Walter Raleigh
SIR WALTER RALEIGH AND THE AIR HISTORY
I
At a meeting of a sub-committee of theCommittee of Imperial Defence whichmet in the middle of July, 1918, to considerthe question of the official history of the AirForce, Admiral Slade welcomed Sir WalterRaleigh as the prospective author of a historywhich would be both interesting and unique—uniquein the sense that no history of thekind had ever been written before. “Almosttoo good a chance,” was the interjection ofSir Walter.
Sir Walter took up the history with enthusiasm.At Oxford throughout the war hehad been chafing under the inactivity whichwas imposed on him by his age. Oxfordwas empty of men. There was not even alot of lecturing to do. The Air History gavehim just such an opportunity as he loved.It was an adventure, and he looked uponlife itself as an adventure. He was possessedof a fine imagination, and the story of theair had for him a great appeal. He had theheart of a boy. In a fine passage on thetemper of the Air Force he says in his book:
“The recruits of the air were young, some of themno more than boys. Their training lasted only a fewmonths. They put their home life behind them, orkept it only as a fortifying memory, and threw themselveswith fervour and abandon into the work to bedone. Pride in their squadron became a part of theirreligion. The demands made upon them, which, itmight reasonably have been believed, were greaterthan human nature can endure, were taken by themas a matter of course; they fulfilled them, and wentbeyond. They were not a melancholy company; theyhad something of the lightness of the element in whichthey moved. Indeed, it would be difficult to find, inthe world’s history, any body of fighters who, for sheergaiety and zest, could hold a candle to them. Theyhave opened up a new vista for their country and formankind. Their story, if it could ever be fully andtruly written, is the Epic of Youth.”
Sir Walter had something of the lightnessof the element of which he wrote, otherwisehe could never have written such a passage.He had seen the Air Force at work on activeservice. His month in Fr