Dermot Boyle


Sir Dermot Boyle
Boyle in 1956
Born(1904-10-02)2 October 1904
Rathdowney, Queen's County, Ireland
Died5 May 1993(1993-05-05) (aged 88)
Sway, Hampshire, England
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchRoyal Air Force
Years of service1922–1960
RankMarshal of the Royal Air Force
CommandsChief of the Air Staff (1956–59)
Fighter Command (1953–56)
No.1 (Bomber) Group (1951–53)
RAF Staff College (1947–48)
No.11 Group (1945–46)
No. 85 (Base) Group (1945)
RAF Stradishall (1942–43)
No. 83 Squadron (1937, 1940–41)
Battles/warsSecond World War
Suez Crisis
AwardsKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath
Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order
Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire
Air Force Cross
Mentioned in Despatches (3)
Commander of the Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Croix de Guerre (Belgium)

Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Dermot Alexander Boyle, GCB, KCVO, KBE, AFC (2 October 1904 – 5 May 1993) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He served in the Second World War initially as a staff officer with the Advanced Air Striking Force in Reims in which capacity he organised the evacuation of the Force through Brest in May 1940. His war service included tours as a bomber squadron commander, as a station commander and also as an air group commander. He was Chief of the Air Staff in the late 1950s and, in that role, deployed British air power during the Suez Crisis in October 1956 and defended the RAF against the views of Duncan Sandys, the Minister for Defence, who believed that the V bomber force rendered manned fighter aircraft redundant.