John Becke
John Harold Whitworth Becke, was an infantry officer in the Second Boer War and squadron, wing and brigade commander in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War. He transferred to the Royal Air Force on its creation on 1 April 1918 as a temporary brigadier general. He retired from the RAF in 1920.
He was born in Liverpool on 17 September 1879. As a captain in the Sherwood Foresters, he was seconded to the Royal Flying Corps and awarded his Royal Aero Club aviators certificate on 18 June 1912 flying a Bristol Biplane at Brooklands. Becke was the first commanding officer of No. 6 Squadron, one of a handful of flying squadrons to be established before the First World War.
