Charles Edmonds

Charles Edmonds
Charles Humphrey Kingsman Edmonds
Born April 20, 1891(1891-04-20)
Died September 26, 1954(1954-09-26) (aged 63)
Service/branch  Royal Navy (1903-1918)
 Royal Air Force (1918-1945)
Rank Air Vice-Marshal
Battles/wars World War I
 • Cuxhaven Raid
 • Gallipoli campaign
World War II

Air Vice-Marshal Charles Humphrey Kingsman Edmonds CBE DSO RAF (20 April 1891 - 26 September 1954) was a decorated British naval aviator during World War I and a senior commander in the Royal Air Force during World War II.

Edmonds served aboard the seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree during the Gallipoli Campaign. On 12 August 1915, flying a Short 184 seaplane, he made history by launching the first ever aerial torpedo attack on a Turkish merchant ship. It subsequently sank, although it had already been hit by the British submarine HMS E14. Five days later, he successfully attacked another Turkish ship, the first to have been sunk entirely by this method.[1]

References

  1. ^ Flying boats & Seaplanes: a History from 1905, Stéphane Nicolaou, Bay View Books Ltd 1998 ISBN 1-901432-20-3 p.54