Alfred Woodhall

Group Captain Alfred Basil Woodhall (9 January 1897 – 11 June 1968) was a British senior officer who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He was a senior controller in the Battle of Britain and the Siege of Malta.

Born in Kirkby-in-Furness, Woodhall joined the Royal Marines soon after the commencement of the First World War. As an officer in the Royal Marine Brigade, he served on the Western Front. Injured during the Battle of the Ancre in November 1916, after his recovery he spent the remainder of the war at sea with various vessels of the Royal Navy. In the interwar period, he volunteered to serve as a pilot with the Fleet Air Arm and flew torpedo bombers off aircraft carriers. He transferred to the RAF in 1930 and, after initial service with fighter squadrons, held staff roles until the start of the Second World War. In March 1940, he was appointed a sector controller at Duxford and coordinated the handling of fighter squadrons in the air during the Battle of Britain. He later served as the station commander at Tangmere and as a senior controller on Malta. By the end of the war, he had been made an officer in the Order of the British Empire and had been twice mentioned in despatches. He retired from the RAF in July 1945 and he spent his later years working in civil aviation in New Zealand, where he died at the age of 71. Provided by Wikipedia