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Air Vice Marshal Alick Foord-Kelcey, CBE, AFC (6 April 1913 – 26 October 1973) was a Royal Air Force (RAF) officer who served as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Signals Command in 1961.

RAF career

Foord-Kelcey was born in Canada, the son of William Foord-Kelcey, a lawyer, and his wife Irene Marion Ethel Payne. His father was killed in the First World War in 1918 and his mother, who was a sculptor, took her sons to England in 1923. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, where he joined the Cambridge University Air Squadron and was then commissioned in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1934 before joining the Royal Air Force as a cadet in 1935. He served in the Second World War on the Air Staff at Headquarters British Forces in Aden and as a pilot and instructor in the Western Desert before joining the Directorate of Plans at the Air Ministry. and later a member of the Joint Planning Staff at the Cabinet War Offices.

After the war he became Station Commander at RAF Stradishall and then Senior Air Staff Officer at Headquarters No. 12 (Fighter) Group before joining the staff on the British Joint Staffs Mission to Washington D. C. He was appointed Assistant Chief of Staff (Operations) at Headquarters Allied Air Forces Central Europe in 1955, Air Officer Commanding No. 11 Group in 1959 and Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Signals Command in a temporary basis for three months in 1961 before becoming Assistant Chief of the Air Staff (Intelligence) in 1961 and retiring in 1964.

In retirement he was Deputy Director of the Foreign Office Arms Control and Disarmament Research Unit and then Executive Director of the Federation of World Health Foundations in Geneva.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year Honours List in 1956.

References

1. "Irene Foord-Kelscey Sculptor and painter". Archived from the original on 15 July 2011. Retrieved 23 February 2011.
2. Jim Foord-Kelcey
3. ^ Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation – Air Vice-Marshal A Foord-Kelcey
4. Service Aviation Flight International, 6 January 1956

v t e Royal Air Force Intelligence Branch heads
Medhurst 1941–1942 Inglis 1942–1945 Elmhirst 1945–1947 Pendred 1947–1950 Ogilvie-Forbes 1950–1952 Fressanges 1952–1954 MacDonald 1954–1958 Bufton 1958–1961 Foord-Kelcey 1961–1964 Maguire 1964–1965

• 1913 births
• 1973 deaths
• People educated at The King's School, Canterbury
• Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
• Royal Air Force air marshals
• Royal Air Force pilots of World War II
• Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
• Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom)
• Heads of RAF Intelligence