Ivor Curtis
Colonel Ivor Curtis (c1874-1928)
1928 Obituary [1]
Colonel IVOR CURTIS, C.B.E., had held the appointment of Educational Adviser to the Air Ministry since the Royal Air Force was reorganized as a separate service, and had been concerned with the training of entrants to the engineering profession for a number of years.
He graduated at Peterhouse, Cambridge, as Senior Optime in 1896, and obtained a first class in the Mechanical Sciences Tripos the following year.
He was first appointed to the staff of the Central Technical College, South Kensington, and then proceeded to the Royal Naval Engineering College, Keyham.
In 1901 he entered the Royal Navy as Naval Instructor, serving afloat until 1904 when he was called to the Admiralty as general assistant to the Director of Naval Education. After eight years in this capacity he became Deputy Inspector of Naval Schools as assistant to Sir Alfred Ewing, Director of Naval Education, and he finally retired from the Navy in 1920.
Meanwhile in the early part of 1918 the reorganization of the flying services had resulted in the formation of the Royal Air Force, and Colonel Curtis played no small part in creating an efficient technical personnel. It became his task to organize the education of the Air Force personnel in such a way that, whilst it would build on previous school training, it would also give that practical bias essential in such a Service. The educational facilities which exist in the Royal Air Force to-day are the measure of his success.
He was the author of several papers on practical education and was recently appointed to the Teachers' Registration Council as representative of the teaching profession in Navy, Army, and Air Force.
He became an Associate Member of the Institution in 1903, and his deaths occurred on 17th October 1928, at the age of 54.