Roderick Carr


Sir Charles Roderick Carr, was a senior Royal Air Force commander from New Zealand. He held high command in the Second World War and served as Chief of the Indian Air Force.

Military career

Educated at Fielding School and Wellington College, New Zealand, Carr was commissioned as a temporary flight sub-lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service in July 1915. He saw action as a spotter at the Battle of Loos in October 1915 during the First World War.
In 1919 Carr went to Russia to fight on the anti-Bolshevist side in the civil war, where he won his Distinguished Flying Cross for action against the enemy. The citation was as follows:
In 1921 Carr was a part of Ernest Shackleton's final Antarctic expedition. On his return, he was granted an RAF short service commission in the rank of flying officer.
In 1927, Carr and Flight Lieutenant L.E.M. Gillman attempted a non-stop flight to India, in a specially modified Hawker Horsley aircraft carrying much extra fuel and taking off at a weight of over 14,000 lb. Carr and Gillman took off from RAF Cranwell on 20 May 1927, but ran out of fuel en route, ditching in the Persian Gulf near Bandar Abbas, Iran. Despite this they had covered a distance of 3,420 mi, which was sufficient to set a new world distance record, but which was beaten in turn within a few hours by Charles Lindbergh's solo Atlantic flight between New York and Paris in the Spirit of St. Louis, covering 3,590 mi.
During the Second World War, Carr served in Bomber Command as Air Officer Commanding No. 4 Group RAF for the majority of the war. Carr was promoted and appointed Deputy Chief of Staff at the Supreme Headquarters of the Allied Expeditionary Force in the final stages of the North West Europe Campaign. His war services were recognised with the award of Commander of the Legion of Honour and the Croix de Guerre by the President of France. Sir Roderick later became Air Officer Commanding, India Command.
In retirement, he lived in Bampton, Oxfordshire. He died at RAF Hospital Uxbridge.