1 Aug 1919:    Awarded Permanent Commission as a Major-General

 1 Jan 1930:      Placed on Half Pay on ceasing to be employed

Hugh could never be considered to be a scholar and his parents' desire to see him enter a military career seemed destined to failure.  In 1884 he tried for entry into the Royal Navy via Dartmouth, failing this and the fact that his academic abilities entry to either Sandhurst or Woolwich, he attempted to join the Militia.  After failing the entrance exams in both 1891 and 1892 he finally passed  with just 28 marks above the minimum required, in March 1893. During the Boar War  he was severely wounded, eventually losing a lung and damaging his spine.    In order to convalesce, he traveled to St Moritz, where he hoped the fresh cool air would help with his lungs, but becoming restless he took up tobogganing and it was not long before he was flashing down the Cresta Run.  With only one lung and needing sticks to walk most would have thought Trenchard's military career to be at an end, but then one day a 'miracle' occurred when he lost control of his toboggan which shot into the air with him landing thirty feet below in a snow drift.  Shrugging away offers of help, he picked himself up and walked away unaided, totally cured.  He even won the Freshman and  Novice's Cup in 1901, only a week after his accident.  Somehow managing to convince the authorities that he was fit (they were totally unaware of his missing lung), he returned to South Africa and by the end of the war, had achieved a reputation as "the best mounted infantry officer of his rank",*  being rewarded by promotion to Brevet Major

Extract from London Gazette - 25 August 1905: -

I have the honour to submit the following report upon the Military operations which took place in this Protectorate between September, 1903, and May, 1904.

"War Office. 23rd February 1906.

Posted back to his regiment in 1910, it was clear to his fellow officers that his stay would be short and it was not long before he began applying for service in various parts of the world.  It was whilst these were being considered he turned his attention to the newly formed Flying Corps which suited his sense of adventure, but in order to be accepted for service in the RFC he had to gain his Royal Aero Club Certificate.  Because of his age he was given ten days in which to gain his RAeC Certificate, the pre-requisite to becoming a pilot in the RFC.  He promptly arrived at Brooklands and was taught to fly in a week gaining his Certificate on 31 July 1912.  However before qualifying as a military pilot at the CFS, he was appointed to the staff as Station Staff Officer.  Looking up his duties he found he was responsible for setting and marking examination papers, so he promptly set himself an paper, sat it, marked it and awarded himself his flying 'brevet'.  

When the bulk of the RFC  went to France in August 1914, Lt Col Trenchard was appointed Officer Commanding The RFC (Military Wing) at Farnborough tasked with forming new squadrons for the front.  Following reorganisation of the RFC in France, he was appointed OC of the 1st Wing and when Henderson returned to London to resume the duties of Director of Military Aeronautics, Trenchard was gazetted GOC, the RFC in France. Throughout his tenure he exhibited an aggressive attitude towards operations and expected his pilots and crews to do likewise.  This led to large scale casualties as British airman flew over the German lines whilst the German fighter pilots preferred not to cross their own lines.  Although the British suffered seemingly large casualties, the result of this policy was an increase in the intelligence gathered and photographs taken which ultimately improved the level of support available to the ground forces to a state never reached by the Germans.

However, for all his apparently oblivious attitude to the casualties suffered by his crews, he was in fact very conscientious of them.  He found himself in constant conflict with the authorities  over the supply of sufficient and suitable machines and unlike other British generals of the period, Trenchard made it his policy to tour the airfields and visit his squadrons and crews.  From these visits he was able to gauge the mood of his crews and assess the effectiveness of his subordinate commanders at first hand.  Whilst abhorring illness and weakness in individuals, he was always prepared to listen to ideas from those in the front line and to reward those showing valour and initiative.  As a result, there were few members of the RFC who did not admire him, albeit in some cases grudgingly.

In January 1918, Trenchard returned from France to take up the appointment as Chief of the Air Staff at the newly created Air Ministry, but Lloyd-George's appointment as Secretary of State for Air, Lord Rothermere, proved less than ideal.  Both he and Trenchard held strongly opinionated views and they immediately clashed with each other with the result that, before the RAF even came into being on 1st April 1918, Trenchard had resigned.  Desperate not to lose Trenchard's experience and talents, Lord Weir (Rothermere's successor) asked him to take command of the newly forming Independent Bombing Force, designed to carry out strategic attacks against Germany.  Discussions between British, French and American governments resulted in the Independent Force becoming the Inter-Allied Independent Force in October, still under Trenchard's command.

With the end of hostilities in November Trenchard asked to be put on half pay for a year in order to gain a rest and to give some experience to younger officers.   However in January 1919, he was asked to offer assistance with quelling some of the mutinies, which were breaking out throughout the country as a result of the governments, poor demobilisation policy.  As a result he found himself in Southampton trying to bring under control a large body of troops (approx. 5000), who refused to leave the docks.  By commandeering a small unit of armed soldiers and threatening to shoot any whom resisted as well as offering an amnesty to those who had merely followed the ringleaders, he was able to restore the situation resulting in the arrest of a mere 53.

Re-appointed to the Air Staff by Churchill in 1919, his first task was to establish the post war for the new service.  He made his proposals for this future structure of the RAF  in  "Trenchard's White Paper" (official title:   Cmd 467. Permanent Organisation of the Royal Air Force - Note by the Secretary of State for Air on a Scheme Outlined by the Chief of the Air Staff), which he presented before Parliament in December 1919.     

Although Trenchard had not originally been in favour of merging the RFC and RNAS, mainly to prevent disruption of day-to-day operations on the Western Front, once the formation of the RAF was a faite accomplie he set about consolidating it's position along side it's older sister services.  Limited budgets and the public's desire not to see the likes of the 'Great War' again, played a major part in post war defence planning.  Trenchard, realised that if the new service was to survive and develop air warfare to the fullest extent it had to be self supporting and fully independent of the Army and Navy.

His first priority was to establish a training foundation at all levels, setting up the RAF College, No 1 School of Technical Training and two years later, the RAF Staff College. He also introduced the Short Service Commission scheme and later still instituted the Special Reserve and Auxiliary Air Force squadrons.

As well as the problems associated with running an Air Force involved in operations across the British Empire, he was also faced with problems at home battling against the efforts of the Navy and Army to have the RAF split in two once again.  In his ten years at the helm of the RAF he successfully fought off three attempts to disband it by the process of parliamentary inquiry, all finding in favour of a separate RAF.  Retirement did not mean separation from the RAF and  for the remainder of his life, he traveled the world visiting units and acting as an ambassador for the RAF.  He continued to influence the RAF through his disciples long after his retirement and probably after his death.

In 1931, he was appointed Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.  Here he tried to restructure the Force on similar lines to those he had established in the RAF.   Although he did manage to improve the organisation of the Force to some extent, other ideas, such as Short Service Officers and a Central Police College, were something of a failure.  Eventually retiring in 1935, he joined the Board of the United Africa Company as Chairman remaining as since until his death.  He has also held the  offices of Director and Trustee of the Imperial War Museum (1937-45).  On 28 January 1936 he was a mourner at the funeral of HM King George V.

*From a report by Col T E Hickman

Further reading: - Trenchard,  Boyle, Andrew - Collins (1962)