LECKIE, Air Marshal Robert.
LECKIE, Air Marshal Robert. The R.C.A.F. Overseas: The First Four Years. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1944.
First edition, first impression. Original blue cloth, in the striking pictorial dust jacket, inscribed on the front free endpaper by Air Marshal Robert Leckie: “Dear Peter, Hope you may enjoy reading this little book. Robert Leckie.” “Peter” was the familiar name of Charles Portal, later Viscount Portal of Hungerford, wartime Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Air Force.
A superb wartime association copy, linking the two senior air chiefs of Britain and Canada at the height of the Allied air war. Leckie was one of the great Commonwealth airmen: Scottish-born, Canadian-raised, a First World War flying-boat pilot in the Royal Naval Air Service, later decorated with the DSO, DSC and DFC, and remembered as one of Canada’s “Zeppelin killers” after helping bring down two German airships. In the Second World War he became one of the architects of Commonwealth air power, returning to Canada in 1940 to organise the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the immense scheme that trained more than 130,000 aircrew from 11 countries. He transferred to the RCAF in 1942 and became Chief of the Air Staff of the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1944, serving until 1947.
Portal, meanwhile, had become Chief of the Air Staff of the RAF in October 1940, remaining at the summit of British air strategy throughout the war. The inscription is therefore far more than courteous: this is the story of the RCAF overseas, given by the head of the RCAF to the head of the RAF. The book records the first four years of Canadian air power abroad, from training and Atlantic patrols to bomber, fighter, coastal and army co-operation operations. The dust jacket calls it Canada’s epic of the air, while the copyright page states that royalties were to accrue to the RCAF Benevolent Fund.
A very good copy, internally clean and well preserved. The dust jacket is bright and attractive, with light rubbing, toning, edge wear, small chips and marks, but remains exceptionally appealing. From Portal’s personal collection.
