Air Vice-Marshal

Air Vice-Marshal

Air vice-marshal is a two-star air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force. The rank is also used by the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence and it is sometimes used as the English translation of an equivalent rank in...

 Charles Humphrey Kingsman Edmonds CBE DSO RAF (20 April 1891 - 26 September 1954) was a decorated British naval aviator during World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 and a senior commander in the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

.

Edmonds served aboard the seaplane carrier HMS Ben-my-Chree

HMS Ben-my-Chree

HMS Ben-my-Chree was a packet steamer and a Royal Navy seaplane carrier of the First World War. She had originally been built as a fast passenger ferry for the Isle of Man Steam Packet — the third to bear her name — in 1907 by Vickers for the England–Isle of Man route...

 during the Gallipoli Campaign. On 12 August 1915, flying a Short 184 seaplane, he made history by launching the first ever aerial torpedo

Aerial torpedo

The aerial torpedo, airborne torpedo or air-dropped torpedo is a naval weapon, the torpedo, designed to be dropped into water from an aircraft after which it propels itself to the target. First used in World War I, air-dropped torpedoes were used extensively in World War II, and remain in limited...

 attack on a Turkish merchant ship. It subsequently sank, although it had already been hit by the British submarine HMS E14

HMS E14

HMS E14 was a British E class submarine built by Vickers, Barrow-in-Furness. During the First World War, two of her captains were awarded the Victoria Cross, and a large number of her officers and crew were also decorated....

. Five days later, he successfully attacked another Turkish ship, the first to have been sunk entirely by this method.