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Christopher Foxley-Norris
| Air Chief Marshal Christopher Foxley-Norris (deceased) Christopher Neil Foxley-Norris, (DSO 1945; OBE 1956; CB 1966, KCB 1969, GCB 1973 ) was born in Birkenhead, Cheshire 16 March 1917. Initially wanting to become a barrister, Foxley-Norris read Law at Trinity College, Oxford, but after he had learned to fly with the University Air Squadron his academic career was cut short by the outbreak of the Second World War, and in early 1940 he was piloting Lysanders with 13 Squadron in France. Then, having participated in the Battle of Britian, Christopher Neil Foxley-Norris trained as a flying instructor and applied his newly acquired skills in Canada under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Christopher Foxley-Norris was posted to the Middle East where he first teamed up with Pat Tuhill, initially on Beaufighters. Returning to Europe in 1943, he flew Beaufighters on anti-shipping operations over the North Sea and the Mediterranean. Foxley-Norris took command of 143 Squadron flying Mosquito IIs and VIs as part of the Banff Strike Wing, led by Max Aitken, for attacks on enemy shipping off Norway. Hazardous operations against heavily defended ships, using rockets and cannon, were made even more dangerous by the weather and fjords which the Mosquitos often had to negotiate below cliff height. Christopher Foxley-Norris went on to a distinguished career in the post-war RAF. His experience was now broadened with a variety of staff and command appointments, including a spell on the Directing Staff at Bracknell and command of the Oxford University Air Squadron and in 1953 his staff skills were recognised when he took over the air planning in Singapore at the height of the Malayan Emergency. Back home in 1956, Foxley- Norris found himself commanding a fighter station, Stradishall, at the time of the Sandys cuts in Fighter Command and in 1963 he served in the recently formed Defence Staff under Earl Mountbatten of Burma, where he gained invaluable experience of Nato and Commonwealth affairs. He was thus an excellent choice to return to Singapore to command 224 Group during the confrontation with Indonesia in 1964. There he commanded a miniature air force of some 300 aircraft in a joint-service campaign where air mobility was the key; this highly cost-effective exercise, as he called it, contributed much to the subsequent stability of South East Asia. Director-General, RAF Organisation, Ministry of Defence 1967-68, Chief of Personnel and Logistics 1971-74; Commander-in-Chief, RAF Germany and Commander, Nato 2nd Tactical Air Force 1968-70; Chairman, Cheshire Foundation (later Leonard Cheshire) 1974-82 (Emeritus), President 2001-03; Chairman, Battle of Britain Fighter Association 1978-2003. Sadly Air Chief Marshal Christopher Foxley-Norris passed away on 28th September 2003. |
Items Signed by Air Chief Marshal Christopher Foxley-Norris (deceased) |
  | Those Valiant Few by Robert Taylor. (B) SOLD OUT | The Battle of Britain commenced at the beginning of June 1940, and for the next two and a half gruelling months the young men of Royal Air Force Fighter Command, duelled with the cream of Goerings Luftwaffe over the skies of southern England. It wa...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
  | Victory over Kent by Geoff Nutkins Price : £120.00 | A Spitfire circles his victim, a Messerschmitt Bf109E in Kent, 1940. Signed by Air Chief Marshal Sir Christopher Foxley-Norris, GCB, DSO, OBE Flight Lieutenant M E Croskell Marshall of the Royal Air Force Sir John Grandy, GCB, G...... | |
  | Enemy Approaching by David Pentland. (P) Price : £720.00 | Hurricanes of No.605 Squadron, October 1940. Aircraft pictured are P3308 UP-A of A A McKellar and N2471 of P Parrott. ...... | |
  | A Call to Arms by David Pentland. (P) Price : £720.00 | Spitfires of No.603 Squadron, 23rd November 1940. The nearest aircraft is P7389 of Archie Winskill. ...... | |
  | Mosquito by Frank Wootton. SOLD OUT | ...... | NOT AVAILABLE |
Packs with at least one item featuring the signature of Air Chief Marshal Christopher Foxley-Norris (deceased) |
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