Francis Shelmerdine

Lieutenant Colonel Sir Francis Claude Shelmerdine (1882 – July 1945) was a senior officer in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War and a civil servant working in connection with civil aviation in the post-war years. Most significantly, he was Director-General of Civil Aviation during the 1930s.

He was commissioned a second lieutenant from the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, in January 1901.

In November 1915, Shelmerdine transferred from Alexandra, Princess of Wales's Own Yorkshire Regiment (unofficially known as the Green Howards at that time) to the Royal Flying Corps.

After the war, Shelmerdine took up duties at the new Air Ministry, where he was the Controller of Aerodromes and Licences. He was later dispatched to Cairo to ensure the smooth-running of the Cairo to Karachi air service. In 1927 he was posted to India, to serve as the Director of Civil Aviation there. He returned to the Air Ministry in 1931 as the home country's Director of Civil Aviation and was Director General of Civil Aviation from 1934 to 1941.