Middle East. C. 1941. Group portrait of Air Marshal A. W. Tedder CB, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (C-in-C) of RAF Middle East (left), Lieutenant General Sir Pierre van Ryneveld, Chief of the General Staff South African Forces (centre), and Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey, Deputy C-in-C Middle East.
After the war, Van Ryneveld was called back to South Africa by the Prime Minister Jan Smuts in order to set up the South African Air Force (SAAF).[2] He flew back home, across Africa, in a Vickers Vimy – a pioneering feat for which he and his co-pilot Quintin Brand were both knighted.[3][a]
(L-R) Lt Col van Ryneveld with First Lt Quintin Brand, February 1920, in front of Vickers Vimy Silver Queen, before their England to South Africa flight
Colonel van Ryneveld established the SAAF in 1920, and directed it until 1933, when he was promoted to Chief of the General Staff (CGS),[4] in command of the Union Defence Forces. However, for the next four years the SAAF remained under Van Ryneveld's direct control as no one was appointed as the Air Force's director until 1937.
In 1925, then Lt-Col van Ryneveld took part in the government's suppression of the Baster Council's rebellion.[5]
Van Ryneveld served as CGS for sixteen years, including the whole of the Second World War. He retired in 1949.[6]
^ abThe citation for his Knighthood reads as follows: 14 May 1920 - Lieutenant-Colonel Hesperus Andrias Van Ryneveld, DSO, MC, late Royal Air Force - Appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of the valuable services rendered to Aviation by the successful flight from England to Cape Town, South Africa.
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