The Boyd Trophy is a silver model of a Fairey Swordfish

Fairey Swordfish

The Fairey Swordfish was a torpedo bomber built by the Fairey Aviation Company and used by the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy during the Second World War...

, which was presented by the Fairey Aviation Company Limited in 1946, in commemoration of the work for Naval Aviation of Admiral

Admiral

Admiral is the rank, or part of the name of the ranks, of the highest naval officers. It is usually considered a full admiral and above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet . It is usually abbreviated to "Adm" or "ADM"...

 Sir Dennis Boyd, KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

, CBE

CBE

CBE and C.B.E. are abbreviations for "Commander of the Order of the British Empire", a grade in the Order of the British Empire.Other uses include:* Chemical and Biochemical Engineering...

, DSC

Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)

The Distinguished Service Cross is the third level military decoration awarded to officers, and other ranks, of the British Armed Forces, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and British Merchant Navy and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries.The DSC, which may be awarded posthumously, is...

 RN. It is awarded annually to the naval pilot(s) or aircrew who, in the opinion of the Flag Officer, Naval Air Command, has achieved the finest feat of aviation during the previous year. It is held by the ship, station or establishment in which the winner(s) was/were serving at the time the winning feat was achieved.

List of Boyd Trophy Recipients

Year	Recipient	Reason
1946	Lt.Cdr. D.B. Law Lt. Reynolds	Formation aerobatic display in Seafires Supermarine Seafire The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire specially adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. The name Seafire was arrived at by collapsing the longer name Sea Spitfire.-Origins of the Seafire:...  at St Merryn St Merryn St Merryn is a civil parish and village in north Cornwall, United Kingdom approximately three and a half miles south of the fishing port of Padstow and approximately 11 miles northeast of the coastal resort of Newquay.... .
1947	Lt.Cdr. H.J. Mortimore, CO of 733 Squadron	Leading a flight of three Expeditors Beechcraft Model 18 The Beechcraft Model 18, or "Twin Beech", as it is better known, is a 6-11 seat, twin-engine, low-wing, conventional-gear aircraft that was manufactured by the Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas...  from Trincomalee Trincomalee Trincomalee is a port city in Eastern Province, Sri Lanka and lies on the east coast of the island, about 113 miles south of Jaffna. It has a population of approximately 100,000 . The city is built on a peninsula, which divides the inner and outer harbours. Overlooking the Kottiyar Bay,...  to Lee-on-Solent in adverse weather conditions.
1948	Lt.Cdr. E.M. Brown, RAE Farnborough Royal Aircraft Establishment The Royal Aircraft Establishment , was a British research establishment, known by several different names during its history, that eventually came under the aegis of the UK Ministry of Defence , before finally losing its identity in mergers with other institutions.The first site was at Farnborough...	Trials with Rubber Deck.
1949	1830 Squadron RNVR	205 accident free deck landings during embarked period in .
1950	17th Carrier Air Group,	Operations in Korea.
1951	814 Squadron 814 Naval Air Squadron 814 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It was formed in December 1938 and has been disbanded and reformed several times. Its nickname is "the Flying Tigers", not to be confused with the American Volunteer squadron of WWII....	Night flying in .
1952	802 802 Naval Air Squadron -Early history:802 Squadron was formed on 3 April 1933 aboard by the merger of two independent RAF naval units, 408 Flight and 409 Flight...  and 825 Squadrons 814 Naval Air Squadron 814 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It was formed in December 1938 and has been disbanded and reformed several times. Its nickname is "the Flying Tigers", not to be confused with the American Volunteer squadron of WWII....	Operations in Korea.
1953	848 Squadron	Operations in Malaya.
1954	Naval Test Squadron, Boscombe Down MoD Boscombe Down MoD Boscombe Down is an aircraft testing site located at Idmiston, south of Amesbury, in Wiltshire, England. It is run and managed by QinetiQ, the company created as part of the breakup of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency in 2001 by the UK Ministry of Defence...	Improvements to RN aircraft.
1955	806 Squadron 806 Naval Air Squadron 806 Naval Air Squadron was a fighter squadron in the Fleet Air Arm that existed from February 1940 to December 1960 and saw active service in Norway, the Dunkirk evacuation and the Malta Convoys.-Formation:...	Pioneering the Sea Hawk Hawker Sea Hawk The Hawker Sea Hawk was a British single-seat jet fighter of the Fleet Air Arm , the air branch of the Royal Navy , built by Hawker Aircraft and its sister company, Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft. Although its origins stemmed from earlier Hawker piston-engined fighters, the Sea Hawk became the...  at sea, and for contributions to tactical investigation in night strike role.
1956	Search and Rescue Flight, RNAS Lossiemouth RAF Lossiemouth RAF Lossiemouth is a Royal Air Force station to the west of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland. It is one of the RAF's biggest bases and is currently Britain's main base for Tornado GR4s. From 2013 the Northern QRA force of Typhoon F2 will relocate to Lossiemouth following the closure of... .	-
1957	Not awarded	-
1958	845 Squadron	Operations in the Persian Gulf, and salvage of .
1959	781 Squadron	Efficiency in communication flights.
1960	831 Squadron	Efficiency in training with the fleet.
1961	's Flight	Efficiency in Antarctica.
1962	815 Squadron 815 Naval Air Squadron 815 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Fleet Air Arm, part of the Royal Navy. The squadron is currently based at RNAS Yeovilton in Somerset, United Kingdom and it is the Navy's front line Lynx Naval Air Squadron. It currently comprises more than 30 Lynx helicopters of various types...	Bringing the Wessex Westland Wessex The Westland Wessex is a British turbine-powered version of the Sikorsky S-58 "Choctaw", developed under license by Westland Aircraft , initially for the Royal Navy, and later for the Royal Air Force...  HAS.1 into service, pioneering night and all-weather ASW Anti-submarine warfare Anti-submarine warfare is a branch of naval warfare that uses surface warships, aircraft, or other submarines to find, track and deter, damage or destroy enemy submarines....  tactics and Wessex SAR Search and rescue Search and rescue is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger.The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, mostly based upon terrain considerations...  procedures.
1963	846 Squadron	Operations in Borneo Borneo Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia.... .
1964	845 Squadron	Services in defence of Malaysia.
1965	759 Squadron	Converting Jet Provost pilots to Hunter Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a subsonic British jet aircraft developed in the 1950s. The single-seat Hunter entered service as a manoeuvrable fighter aircraft, and later operated in fighter-bomber and reconnaissance roles in numerous conflicts. Two-seat variants remained in use for training and secondary...  aircraft.
1966	No. 849C Flight	Outstanding Performance in during Mozambique patrol.
1967	801 Squadron 801 Naval Air Squadron 801 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm squadron of the Royal Navy formed in 1933 which fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Falklands War.- Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force:...	Bringing the Buccaneer S.2 Blackburn Buccaneer The Blackburn Buccaneer was a British low-level subsonic strike aircraft with nuclear weapon delivery capability serving with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force between 1962 and 1994, including service in the 1991 Gulf War...  into service.
1968	814 Squadron 814 Naval Air Squadron 814 Naval Air Squadron is a squadron of the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm. It was formed in December 1938 and has been disbanded and reformed several times. Its nickname is "the Flying Tigers", not to be confused with the American Volunteer squadron of WWII....	Bringing the Wessex HAS.3 to a high state of operational effectiveness at sea.
1969	Lt.Cdr. P.C. Marshall, AFC Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) The Air Force Cross is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom Armed Forces, and formerly also to officers of the other Commonwealth countries, for "an act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying, though not in active operations against the enemy"...	Exceptional skill and personal courage in bringing a badly damaged Phantom F-4 Phantom II The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is a tandem two-seat, twin-engined, all-weather, long-range supersonic jet interceptor fighter/fighter-bomber originally developed for the United States Navy by McDonnell Aircraft. It first entered service in 1960 with the U.S. Navy. Proving highly adaptable,...  safely back to base.
1970	Lt.Cdr. V. Sirrett	The work of 700S Squadron, the Sea King Westland Sea King The Westland WS-61 Sea King is a British licence-built version of the American Sikorsky S-61 helicopter of the same name, built by Westland Helicopters. The aircraft differs considerably from the American version, with Rolls-Royce Gnome engines , British made anti-submarine warfare systems and a...  Intensive Flying Trials Unit (IFTU).
1971	826 Squadron,	Rescue of crew from SS Steel Vendor. In bad weather, two Sea King helicopters took off the crew of 40.
1972	Lt.Cdr. Davis Lt. C.D. Walkinshaw Lt. Park Lt. Lucas	Flying 2,800 miles from HMS Ark Royal to Belize Belize Belize is a constitutional monarchy and the northernmost country in Central America. Belize has a diverse society, comprising many cultures and languages. Even though Kriol and Spanish are spoken among the population, Belize is the only country in Central America where English is the official... . The operation involved two Buccaneers Blackburn Buccaneer The Blackburn Buccaneer was a British low-level subsonic strike aircraft with nuclear weapon delivery capability serving with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force between 1962 and 1994, including service in the 1991 Gulf War...  flown in a show of strength to deter Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...  from invading British Honduras British Honduras British Honduras was a British colony that is now the independent nation of Belize.First colonised by Spaniards in the 17th century, the territory on the east coast of Central America, south of Mexico, became a British crown colony from 1862 until 1964, when it became self-governing. Belize became...  as it was then known.
1973	Not awarded	-
1974	Lt. I. McKechnie, Flight	Evacuation of refugees from Cyprus Cyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the... .
1975	Not awarded	-
1976	Lt.Cdr. K.M.C. Simmons Lt. T.J. MacMahon Lt. A.B. Ross CPO ACM E.A. Butler Flight	Rescue off Iceland Iceland Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population... .
1977	700L Squadron, the Lynx Westland Lynx The Westland Lynx is a British multi-purpose military helicopter designed and built by Westland Helicopters at its factory in Yeovil. Originally intended as a utility craft for both civil and naval usage, military interest led to the development of both battlefield and naval variants...  IFTU	Introducing the Lynx into Naval service.
1978	Aircrews of Culdrose squadrons	Outstanding record of rescues, medical and humanitarian flights during the year.
1979	Flight	Outstanding performance in Dominica Dominica Dominica , officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island nation in the Lesser Antilles region of the Caribbean Sea, south-southeast of Guadeloupe and northwest of Martinique. Its size is and the highest point in the country is Morne Diablotins, which has an elevation of . The Commonwealth... , following the devastation caused by Hurricane David Hurricane David Hurricane David was the fourth named tropical cyclone, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the 1979 Atlantic hurricane season. A Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, David was among the deadliest hurricanes in the latter half of the 20th century, killing... .
1980	Not awarded.	-
1981	801 Squadron 801 Naval Air Squadron 801 Naval Air Squadron was a Fleet Air Arm squadron of the Royal Navy formed in 1933 which fought in World War II, the Korean War and the Falklands War.- Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Air Force:...	Outstanding achievements in operating the Sea Harrier BAE Sea Harrier The British Aerospace Sea Harrier is a naval VTOL/STOVL jet fighter, reconnaissance and attack aircraft, a development of the Hawker Siddeley Harrier. It first entered service with the Royal Navy in April 1980 as the Sea Harrier FRS1 and became informally known as the "Shar"... , embarked in .
1982	Cdr. T.J.H. Gedge	Leadership on the ground and in the air, perseverance, skill, professional knowledge and control.
1983	705 Squadron 705 Naval Air Squadron 705 Naval Air Squadron was first formed in 1936 from No 447 Flight Royal Air Force and operated Swordfish torpedo bombers from battlecruisers. It was disbanded in 1940, but was re-formed in 1947 as a Fleet Requirements Unit to evaluate naval use of helicopters...	Excellent overall performance, training achievement, outstanding airmanship and exceptional contribution to the prestige of Naval Aviation.