Commander C. R. Samson R.N
Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson CMG, DSO and Bar, AFC (8 July 1883 - 5 February 1931), British naval aviation pioneer. He was one of the first four officers selected for pilot training by the Royal Navy and was the first person to fly an aircraft from a moving ship. He also commanded the first British armoured vehicles used in combat. Transferring to the Royal Air Force on its creation in 1918, Samson held command of several groups in the immediate post-War period and the 1920s. Pictured in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News while he was taking part in the Daradanelles campaign. It comments, He thinks nothing of going up over the interior of Turkey and dropping a few bombs. A few nights ago, when a hostile aeroplane came over the camp, the Commander went up and flew towards the Turkish aerodrome. The Turks imagined it was their own man returning and lit fires for him to descend, whereupon the Commander dropped some 100lb explosive
