Lyster Fettiplace Blandy
Air Commodore Lyster Fettiplace Blandy, C.B., D.S.O., Royal Engineers (1874-1964). Blandy was in command of British Army wireless communications in France during the early part of the First World War. Later in the war, he performed a similar function for the Royal Air Force. Coming out of retirement at outbreak of the Second World War, he headed up Y Service, the RAF signals intelligence intercept capability, serving into his seventies.
1874: Born, West Derby, Lancashire, England on 21st September 1874 to Adam Fettiplace Blandy and Elizabeth Mary Carne.
1888-1892: Educated at Haileybury College
Attended the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich.
1895: Entered the Royal Engineers.
1908-12: Inspector Royal Engineers Stores at Woolwich.
1913: At the beginning of the year, assumed command of the Wireless Signal Company at Aldershot.
1914-17: In charge of Wireless Communication of the British Expeditionary Force, France.
1915: Awarded Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (D.S.O.) in 1915 Birthday Honours List.
1917: Became Chief Experimental Officer of Army Signals Experimental Establishment.
1918: Chief Experimental Officer at R.A.F. Biggin Hill, and thence transferred to become Controller of Communications of the Air Ministry.
1918-1919: Senior R.A.F. representative on the newly instituted Wireless Telegraphy Board[1].
1921: Lieut.-Col., R.E.; Head of the British Delegation to the International Technical Committee on Radio-Communication, Paris.
Officer of the Legion d'Honneur; Chevalier of the Order of the Crown of Belgium; Mons Star with bar.
1924: Awarded Companion of the Order of the Bath (CB) in 1924 Birthday Honours List.
1925: Promoted from Group Captain to Air Commodore, July 1, 1925 [2]
1928: Retired 30th Nov 1928[3] from his Air Ministry post of Controller of Communications.[4]
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Blandy set up an Air Intelligence (AI) Intercept service based at RAF Hawkinge near Folkestone to monitor Luftwaffe Radio-telephony traffic. Known as AI-1(e), units later covered the coastline from Scarborough in Yorkshire round to Strete in Devon, intercept traffic being routed to a site at West Kingsdown, Kent.[4]
1940: Head of Air Intelligence's Y Service.[3][5]
1964: Died 7th June 1964, aged 89.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Navy List, December 1919
- ↑ (9 July 1925) "Half-Yearly Promotion List." Flight. No. 863. (XVII(28)), p.445
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Commodore L F Blandy service record on RAFWeb
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 West, Nigel. (2012) Historical Dictionary of Signals Intelligence. p.11. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc. ISBN 9780810871878
- ↑ Holland, James (2010). The Battle of Britain. p.506. London: Transworld Publishers Ltd. ISBN 9780593059135