Gordon Herbert Vasse

Air Commodore Gordon Herbert Vasse CBE RAF, (23 April 1899 – 26 March 1965), was a fighter pilot in the First World War and a senior Royal Air Force commander during the Second World War and into the late 1940s and early 1950s. During most of the Second World War he was Director of Air Tactics for the RAF.

In his final appointment Vasse also served as the seventh Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps. Vasse was chosen as one of the RAF’s principal representatives to the funeral of King George VI in 1952.

Early career
In 1917 Vasse joined the Royal Naval Air Service as a trainee pilot in the rank of Probationery Flight Officer and was later promoted to Flight Sub-Lieutenant.

When the RAF was formed in March 1918 Vasse transferred to the new service in the rank of 2nd Lieutenant (Pilot) and was rapidly promoted to Pilot Officer and then Flying Officer. After seeing active combat duty as a fighter pilot in the latter stages of the First World War Vasse was transferred to the unemployed officer list in September 1919.

Back to the RAF
In October 1921 he rejoined the RAF on a short service commission in the rank of Flying Officer and posted as a supernumerary pilot at the RAF Central Depot. After a further supernumerary posting to the School of Technical Training he was posted to No. 6 Squadron RAF as a pilot in April 1923.

After a short one month period as a supernumerary at the Central Depot over the Christmas of 1925 he was granted a permanent commission in January 1926 and posted as an instructor to the RAF’s Air Armament and Gunnery School. Promoted to Flight Lieutenant in July 1927, in March 1929 he was appointed Armaments Officer at the RAF North Coates gunnery practice range in Lincolnshire where he remained until November 1930.

Returning to flying duties as a flight commander with No. XV Squadron RAF on 1 November 1930 he remained with the squadron until February 1933, apart from a two-month period while suffering from an illness that prevented him from flying. In November he was posted overseas firstly as Armaments Officer for No. 3 (Indian) Wing RAF and later as Staff Armament Officer at Headquarters No. 1 (Indian) Group.

Returning to the UK in 1936 he was appointed as a Staff Instructor at the Air Armament School on promotion to Squadron Leader. After a short armament officer posting to RAF Northolt he was promoted to Wing Commander and granted his first command as Officer Commanding the Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU) at RAF Duxford.

Commands
He would remain at Duxford, becoming Station Commander there, on promotion to Group Captain, until July 1941 when he was appointed Deputy Director of the RAF Air Tactics department. In October the following year he became Director of the department in the rank of Acting Air Commodore. In July 1945 he was honoured as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire by King George VI in the King's Birthday Honours.

Between 1944 and 1945 Vasse filled a number of senior appointments in quick succession including Deputy Senior Air Staff Officer (SASO) at Headquarters Air Command South East Asia, SASO No. 221 Group RAF and SASO HQ RAF Burma. As the war ended Vasse was serving as AOC RAF Seletar in Singapore.

Returning to post war England in the Autumn of 1946 Vasse served in a number of AOC appointments with No. 21 Group RAF, No. 25 Group and latterly No. 63 Group where he remained from March 1948 until March 1951. His rank as an Air Commodore was confirmed on 1 July 1947.

Royal Observer Corps
In March 1951 Vasse was posted to RAF Bentley Priory and took over as the seventh Commandant Royal Observer Corps from Air Commodore Sir Richard Bowen Jordan KCB DFC ADC RAF. Vasse was able to bring his long expertise in air tactics to bear on the operational systems used by the ROC in tracking aircraft. He also oversaw the expansion of the Corps’ coverage to include Northern Ireland for the first time, establishing No. 31 Group ROC with its headquarters in Lisburn.

Vasse was selected by the RAF to be one of its principal representatives at the funeral of King George VI at Westminster Abbey and Windsor Castle. His first task after the funeral was to formally invite Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth to become the Corps’ new Air Commodore in Chief, an appointment she readily accepted.

Air Commodore Vasse’s attention was then directed at the growing problem of the Corps tracking the newly introduced high speed jet aircraft. He realised it would need a revised operational layout to maintain reporting efficiency. The solution addressed a consolidation of group boundaries to match RAF Fighter Command sectors and crucial improvements in track handover across group boundaries.

The reorganisation of groups reduced their number and Vasse oversaw the closing of the wartime operational centres at Maidstone, Lincoln, Bury St Edmunds, Cambridge, Gloucester, Cardiff, Wrexham and Dunfermline, several of which would reopen three years later. The dual centres at York were combined into a single establishment. Posts were rearranged so that some clusters now straddled group boundaries and reported to both centres to improve fast jet track handovers between groups.

Retirement
The Royal Observer Corps was Vasse’s final service appointment and he retired from the RAF on 26 April 1954 and handed over command of the ROC to Air Commodore J H T Simpson DSO AFC. Vasse was due to return to RAF Bentley Priory as a principal guest of honour at the Royal Review of the Royal Observer Corps by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth in July 1966, but sadly he died before the event.

Main Sources

 * http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Vasse.htm