Alick Stevens


Sir Alick Charles Stevens, was a Royal Air Force officer who became Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Coastal Command from 1951 until his retirement in 1953.

RAF career

Educated at Victoria College, Jersey, Stevens joined the Royal Naval Air Service in 1916. He served in the First World War and after having to land in the Thames Estuary following engine failure in November 1916, he was picked up by a German U-Boat, becoming a prisoner of war at Osnabrück in North Germany for the remainder of the war. He was appointed Officer Commanding No. 205 Squadron in 1935. He served in the Second World War as Deputy Director and then Director of Operations until 1943 when he became Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters No. 18 Group. He was made Air Officer Commanding RAF Gibraltar in 1944.
After the War he served as Air Officer Commanding No. 47 Group, Air Officer Commanding No. 4 Group and then Air Officer Commanding No. 22 Group before being appointed Commander of British Forces Aden in 1948. He went on to be Air Officer Commanding RAF East Africa before becoming Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters RAF Coastal Command in 1950 and then Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at RAF Coastal Command in 1951 and retiring in 1953.