Roderic Hill

Air Chief Marshal Sir Roderic Maxwell Hill KCB, MC, AFC & Bar, RAF (1 March 1894 – 6 October 1954) was a senior Royal Air Force commander during World War II. He was a former Rector of Imperial College and Vice-Chancellor of London University. The Department of Aeronautics of Imperial College is situated in a building named after him.

RAF career
Educated at University College, London, Hill joined the 18th Bn Royal Fusiliers as a private soldier in 1914 during World War I and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps as a commissioned officer in 1916. He took an interest in aircraft design and in 1917 became Officer Commanding the Experimental Section at the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough Airfield. He was made Officer Commanding No. 45 Squadron in 1924 and flew Vernon transport aircraft on the Air Mail Route carrying British Government air-mail between Cairo and Baghdad, and made other air journeys in Iraq. He wrote and illustrated a memoir of his time in Iraq and the Middle East: it gives a lively account of flying the large biplanes of the period over difficult desert terrain, and also provides a sharply focussed, and sometimes lyrical description of the landscpe and people of the region.

He joined the Directing Staff at the RAF Staff College in 1927 and then went on to be the Officer Commanding the Oxford University Air Squadron in 1930, Deputy Director of Repair and Maintenance at the Air Ministry in 1932 and Air Officer Commanding Palestine & Transjordan Command in 1936.

During World War II he was Director-General of Research and Development at the Air Ministry and then Commandant of the RAF Staff College from 1942. He was appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 12 Group in 1943 and then served as Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command (also briefly called the Air Defence of Great Britain during his command) from 1943 to 1945.

After the War he was Air Member for Training and then Air Member for Technical Services before retiring in 1948. In retirement he became Rector of Imperial College. In 1953 he was nominated Vice-Chancellor of London University, before ill-health forced him to resign in the following year before completing his term of office.

Personal life
Hill married Mabel Helen Catherine Morton in 1917. They had two daughters and an only son who was killed in action in 1944. He died from a coronary thrombosis near St Bartholomew's Hospital.

Honours and awards

 * Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath - 1 January 1944 (CB - 1 July 1941)
 * Military Cross - 14 November 1916
 * Air Force Cross - 3 August 1918, Bar - 2 January 1922 [31 December 1921]
 * Mention in Despatches - 1 January 1916, 31 October 1938, 23 December 1938, 25 April 1939
 * Commander of the Legion of Merit (United States) - 9 October 1945
 * Grand Cross of the Order of the White Lion (Czechoslovakia) - 15 March 1946
 * Commander of the Order of Leopold (Belgium) with Palms, (Belgium) - 25 June 1948
 * Croix de Guerre with Palms (France) - 25 June 1948
 * Master of Arts (Oxford) - 1931
 * Hon LL.D (Glasgow)
 * Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society
 * 'RM Groves Aeronautical Research Prize' - August 1922