NAMES & BIOGRAPHIES

GROUP CAPTAIN PATRICK TOOTAL OBE DL RAF (RET'D)
Hon Secretary

Group Captain Patrick Tootal served in the RAF for 33 years as a pilot. In 1977 he commanded LXX (70) Squadron flying Hercules at RAF Lyneham. He held various staff and command appointments including becoming the first Defence Attaché in Buenos Aires nine years after the Falklands conflict.

After retiring from the RAF in 1993 he was the first County Field Officer for the Royal British Legion in Kent supporting the many volunteers who raise funds and provide welfare for the ex-Service community in need. He retired from this post in May 2005. In 2004 he was appointed as a Deputy Lieutenant for Kent. In addition to being the Hon Secretary of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust, he is Hon Secretary of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association, company secretary for the Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust and President of his local RAFA Branch, the North Downs Branch of Royal Society of St George and 2374(Ditton) Squadron ATC. He is also Hon Treasurer of his local church.

 

AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR MICHAEL GRAYDON GCB CBE
President Battle Of Britain Memorial Trust

Air Chief Marshal Sir Michael Graydon was commissioned into the Royal Air Force, following a 3 year cadetship at the RAF College Cranwell in 1959. He was specially selected for training as a flying instructor and after completing the course at the Central Flying School joined No 1 Flying Training School. He then converted on to Lightning fighters with No 56 Squadron at RAF Wattisham. He served as an instructor on 226 Operational Conversion Unit. On promotion to squadron leader he was posted as a flight commander with No 56 at RAF Akrotiri, in Cyprus. He attended the RAF Staff College at Bracknell and in 1970 was appointed as personal staff officer to the Deputy Commander in Chief of Allied Forces Central Europe in Belgium. He joined Operations Staff in the Ministry of Defence in 1973 and on promotion to wing commander completed the National Defence College Course Latimer in 1976.

He then commanded No 111 Squadron flying Lightnings at RAF Binbrook in 1977 and on promotion to group captain became Military Assistant to the Chief of the Defence Staff 1979. He commanded Royal Air Force Leuchars in Fife from 1981 to 1983 followed by command of Royal Air Force Stanley, in the Falkland Islands following the Conflict. After graduating from the Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1984 he held a number of senior appointments; Senior Air Staff Officer at HQ No1 Group, Bentley Priory as an Air Commodore, ACOS Policy SHAPE Belgium as an Air Vice Marshal, AOC-in-C RAF Support Command as an Air Marshal. On promotion to Air Chief Marshal in 1991 he was appointed Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief Strike Command and C-in-C UK Air Forces. In 1992 he was appointed Chief of Air Staff a post he held until 1997 when he retired from the Royal Air Force.

He has held and holds various senior appointments in the aerospace industry. He is chairman of Sherwood Coalfield Regeneration Trust, vice chairman of the governors of Wycliffe College, a governor of Sutton’s Hospital in Charterhouse; a director of the Church Schools Company, a member of the committee of management of the RNLI a Freeman City of London, a Liveryman Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators and President of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust.

He is married to Elizabeth who is an artist and author of a wonderful book about heir dog Blackie, “Air Dog to Top Dog”. His interests are golf and photography.

 

RICHARD H. HUNTING
Trustee

Richard Hunting was born in Sussex in 1946 and educated at Rugby School, Sheffield University (B.Eng) and the Manchester Business School (M.B.A.).

As a student he worked in the oilfields of western Canada and for Shell Research, Smiths Industries and Perkins Diesels in the UK. After two years in a marketing position with the electronics firm Mullard, he joined the Hunting group of oil and engineering companies in 1972.

Within Hunting, he worked as shipbroker, aircraft marketing executive, production engineer and corporate planner in subsidiary companies before coming into the headquarters in 1985. After that he was particularly involved in the firm’s air survey and consultancy interests and with its boatbuilding company. He became a director (1986) and then Chairman (1989) of Hunting Associated Industries, one of three Hunting public companies. When those three companies merged in 1989 to form the present Hunting PLC, he was initially Deputy Chairman and subsequently (1991) Chairman, the position he currently holds.

The company, in which his family holds around 28% of the equity, sponsors the Hunting Art Prizes, one of the main national painting competitions in the UK. Outside the firm, Richard Hunting is a non-executive director of Yule Catto & Co plc (chemicals); is Chairman of the Trustees of the Geffrye Museum (English domestic interiors); is a Court member (Master in 1996/7) of the Worshipful Company of Ironmongers (one of the twelve principal livery companies of the City of London); is Chairman of The Battle of Britain Memorial Trust; is a director of CORDA (the Coronary Artery Disease Research Association); is a Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea (home of the Chelsea Pensioners); and was a council member (1992-97) of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI).

His interests include the arts, family history and skiing. He speaks fluent French.

He lives in London, is married to Penny (Dr. Penelope Hunting F.S.A. - a London historian and author) and they have three children.

 

GEOFF SIMPSON
Trustee

Geoff Simpson is a freelance public relations consultant and journalist who has written, broadcast and lectured extensively about the Battle of Britain. He is a Council Member of the Friends of the Imperial War Museum and, in 2005, was made a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations.

 

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