AIR CHIEF MARSHALL SIR JOHN BARRACLOUGH

Wartime flying-boat pilot devoted to the interests of the RAF throughout a long and distinguished career

Of all the very senior officers of the Royal Air Force, few have devoted themselves to its interests both in the service and in so- called retirement more than John Barraclough.

Born in 1918 in Hounslow, he was educated at Cranbrook School, where he was a member of the Officer Training Corps; subsequently, while working in stock broking, he joined the Artists' Rifles. Then in 1938, after learning to fly at Hamble, he was commissioned and trained as a flying-boat pilot. When the Second World War began, he was serving with 240 Squadron, equipped with the Saro London flying boat, and over the next nine months he flew North Sea anti- submarine and shipping-protection patrols from Invergordon and Sullom Voe. In 1941, after converting to the Stranraer flying boat and patrolling from south-west Scotland, he was employed on operational training. Then in February 1942 he joined 209 Squadron, now re-equipping with the Catalina in readiness for deployment to the Indian Ocean.

His squadron arrived at Mombasa in June, its main task to help deal with the mounting Japanese and German threats to the supply routes to India. In September it also covered the successful amphibious operations to capture Tamatave and Majunga, the two main ports on the island of Madagascar, by providing maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine support. Thereafter a growing German U-boat campaign necessitated setting up a chain of coastal and island bases from which the Catalinas could operate over the western Indian Ocean, and Barraclough - now in command of the squadron - spent much of his time on this work. The citation for the DFC he was awarded in February 1943 referred to his valuable qualities of keenness and devotion to duty: "The squadron's successes were in large measure attributed to his initiative, leadership and resourcefulness."

There followed a year commanding one of the new bases, at Mogadishu in Italian Somaliland, before he returned home to spend the rest of his war as Chief Instructor at Killadeas, the Catalina Operational Conversion Unit on Lough Erne. Afterwards he moved briefly to Coastal Command Headquarters, but in 1946 - when he received his permanent commission - it was time to extend his horizons beyond maritime air operations. He underwent staff training in Haifa, then worked on the personnel staffs at Headquarters Middle East and Air Headquarters Malta, and in 1949 he moved into the flying-training world. Here he quickly became proficient on jet aircraft and in 1951 carried out the first single-engined jet flight to South Africa and back, in a Vampire. Then came a spell at Flying Training Command Headquarters.

Two years at the Imperial Defence College as a member of the Directing Staff came next, followed by three years commanding fighter stations, first Biggin Hill and second Middleton St George, both operating Meteors. Now it was eastward again, this time as far as Singapore, where he worked as senior operations and training officer at Headquarters Far East Air Force during the final stages of the long-running Malayan Emergency. After this, in 1961, he was chosen to move to the Air Ministry - for the first time - as Chief Information Officer, a post calling for special skills in dealing with the media and presenting the RAF image, and his success in his three years there demonstrated his great ability to win the respect and trust of people of all kinds.

In 1964 Barraclough was delighted to return to Coastal Command, his old stamping ground, as Air Officer Commanding 19 Group at Mountbatten and afterwards, in 1967, he became the first British serving officer to attend the 13-week Advanced Management Programme at the Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration. The task that followed this lay at High Wycombe, where he became Air Officer Administration for the final months of Bomber Command and the opening years of the new Strike Command: the amalgamation of the RAF's three great wartime commands, coupled with the implications of the transfer of the nuclear-deterrent role from Strike Command's V Force to the Royal Navy's Polaris submarine presented him with major challenges.

Nineteen seventy saw him back in London, this time as Vice-Chief of the Defence Staff for the period of the main military withdrawals from the Far East; in 1972 he returned to RAF duties as Air Secretary, where his personality and experience were well suited to handling the many matters relating to officers' careers at a time when major cutbacks were taking place; and in 1974 he became Commandant of the Royal College of Defence Studies, his final RAF appointment and one for which he was again particularly well suited.

He retired in 1976 and became chairman of the Royal United Service Institution, vice-chairman of the Air League and editorial director of the periodical NATO's Fifteen Nations. He also found time to co-author, with General Sir John Hackett, the best-selling book The Third World War (1978).