William Welsh (RAF officer)
Air Marshal Sir William Lawrie Welsh, (10 February 1891 – 2 January 1962) was a Royal Air Force officer who commanded British air operations during Operation Torch. Early career Welsh started his career in the Merchant Navy and from 1910 he was midshipman in the Royal Navy Reserve prior to the outbreak of the First World War, Welsh joined the Royal Naval Air Service in November 1914 as a pilot at RNAS Calshot. During the early years of the war, Welsh acted as a test pilot and became one of the first pilots to fly a plane off an early carrier, flying a Sopwith Schneider floatplane off , while sailing at approximately 18 knots, on 6 August 1915. He again repeated this on 3 November with the ship sailing at full speed. Welsh was shot down while flying a Sopwith Baby seaplane, landing only six miles northeast of Dunkirk on 23 April 1917, although he was unhurt in the crash. In 1918, Welsh received his first command as head of No. 17 Squadron RNAS, which became No. 217 Squadron on the formation of the RAF and then went on to command No. 214 Squadron from January 1918. Stationed in Egypt,