Andrew James Wray Geddes
|
Andrew James Wray Geddes CBE DSO |
|
|---|---|
| Born |
31 July 1906 Belgaum, India |
| Died | 15 December 1988 (aged 82) Eastbourne, Sussex, England |
| Allegiance |
 United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |
 British Army Royal Air Force
|
| Years of service | 1926–1954 |
| Rank | Air Commodore |
| Service number | 25011 |
| Commands held |
No. 2 Squadron RAF (Lysanders No 4 Flight Training School (RAF Heany) |
| Battles/wars | World War II |
| Awards | |
Air Commodore Andrew James Wray Geddes CBE DSO (31 July 1906 – 15 December 1988) was the senior Royal Air Force officer during World War II who led the planning for Operation Manna, the air drop of food supplies to the starving population of the Netherlands.
Geddes was born in India, the son of Major Malcolm Henry Burdett Geddes,an Indian Army Officer. He soon returned to England with his mother and much later graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Woolwich and joined the Royal Artillery in 1926.
Geddes began his military career in the Army before being seconded to the RAF in 1928. He trained at RAF Sealand before joining No. 4 Squadron RAF at RAF Farnborough flying the Bristol F.2 Fighter and later the Armstrong Whitworth Atlas.
In 1932, he rejoined the Royal Artillery but was again seconded to the RAF in 1935, this time as a Flight Commander with No. 2 Squadron RAF at RAF Manston. By 1938, Geddes was to Squadron Commander.
He had an active role in the planning of Operation Overlord, the Allied invasion of Normandy in June 1944. Shortly after the landing on 6 June 1944, Geddes flew a Mustang over the invasion beaches taking some of the first pictures of the invasion.
Although Geddes retained his Army commission (reaching the rank of Major in 1943), he spent all of World War II in the RAF. He finally fully transferred to the RAF in 1945.
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