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{{Short description|Royal Air Force air commodore}}
{{EngvarB|date=May 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{Infobox military person
| name = Richard Pink
| image = British_Air_Section_at_the_1919_Paris_Peace_Conference.jpg
| image_size =
| alt = A black and white photograph of eight men, five standing and three seated, most of whom are wearing British military uniforms. The man standing in the middle is believed to be then-Lieutenant Colonel Pink.
| caption = The British Air Section at the [[1919 Paris Peace Conference]]. The unidentified officer standing in the middle is believed to be then-Lieutenant Colonel Pink.
| nickname =
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1888|11|30}}<ref name=Oxford /><ref name=authority />
| birth_place = [[Winchester]], Hampshire
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1932|03|07|1888|11|30}}
| death_place = Princess Mary's RAF Hospital, [[RAF Halton]], Buckinghamshire
| placeofburial =
| allegiance = {{flagcountry|UK}}
| branch ={{navy|UKGBI}} (1904–18)
*[[Royal Naval Air Service]]
{{air force|UK}} (1918–32)
| serviceyears = 1904–1932
| rank = [[Air Commodore]]
| servicenumber =
| unit =
| commands = [[RAF Manston]] (1929–31) Aircraft Depot, Egypt (1921–23) No. 2 (Indian) Wing (1925) [[Milford Haven Anti-Submarine Group]] (1917)
| battles = [[First World War]] [[Pink's War]]
| awards = [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] [[Mentioned in dispatches]]<ref name=MiD />
| relations =
| laterwork =
}}
[[Air Commodore]] '''Richard Charles Montagu Pink''', {{postnominals|country=GBR|size=100|CBE}} (30 November 1888 – 7 March 1932) was a senior officer in the [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF). He distinguished himself during service with the [[Royal Navy]] and [[Royal Naval Air Service]] in the [[First World War]], before joining the RAF shortly after its creation in 1918. He is the namesake of [[Pink's War]], which was the first campaign conducted by the RAF alone and the only campaign to be named after an RAF officer.<ref name=Oxford /><ref name=authority /><ref name=modhist />

==Early life and naval career==
Richard Charles Montagu Pink was born on 30 November 1888 in [[Winchester]], Hampshire, to [[Charles Richard Pink]], an architect, and Florence Anna, ''née'' Browne.<ref name="Oxford" /> He was schooled at St Aubyns, [[Eastbourne]], and [[Britannia Royal Naval College]], [[Dartmouth, Devon]], then in 1904 was commissioned into the [[Royal Navy]] as a [[midshipman]]. He received promotions to [[sub-lieutenant]] in 1908 and lieutenant in 1911.<ref name="Oxford">{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=76073&back=&version=2004-09|title=Pink, Richard Charles Montagu (1888–1932)|last=Smith|first=Richard A.|date=2004-09-23|website=[[Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]]|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131109122858/http://www.oxforddnb.com/templates/article.jsp?articleid=76073&back=&version=2004-09|archive-date=2013-11-09|access-date=2018-03-10}}</ref><ref name=authority>{{cite web|title=Air Commodore R C M Pink|url=http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Pink.htm|work=Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref><ref name=modhist>{{cite web|last=Grieves|first=Kevin|title=On this day in history: Pink's War began 1925|date=9 March 2012|url=http://modernhistorian.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/on-this-day-in-history-pinks-war-began.html|work=The Modern Historian|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref><ref name=Sub-Lt>{{London Gazette |issue=28206 |date=18 December 1908 |page=9659 }}</ref><ref name=Lt>{{London Gazette |issue=28452 |date=2 January 1911 |page=5 |supp=y }}</ref> He married Marie Wrigley on 27 June 1912, while stationed with the torpedo ship [[HMS Vulcan (1889)|HMS ''Vulcan'']] in Dundee.<ref name="Oxford" /> During his time with the Royal Navy and then the [[Royal Naval Air Service]], Pink worked first in submarine and then anti-submarine warfare, coming to command the [[Milford Haven Anti-Submarine Group]] in 1917, followed by postings as Commanding Officer of [[RNAS Longside]] and [[RNAS Pembroke]].<ref name=authority />

==Royal Air Force career==
With the transfer of RNAS personnel into the new [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) on 1 April 1918, Pink was appointed to senior staff duties in the Marine Operations Section of the RAF's Directorate of Flying Operations.<ref name=authority /> By January 1919 he was part of the British Delegation's Air Section to the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] but was recalled to home duties later that year to take up post as the Director of Flying Operations and act as the Airship Advisor to the Chief of the Air Staff.<ref>{{cite journal |year=1932 |title=Air Commodore Pink |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n3QfAQAAMAAJ&q=Air+Commodore+Pink |journal=The Aeroplane |publisher=Temple Press |volume=42 |page=466 |access-date=9 November 2013 }}</ref> He received a permanent commission as a [[Lieutenant colonel (United Kingdom)|lieutenant colonel]] on 1 August 1919, a rank later renamed to [[Wing commander (rank)|wing commander]].<ref name=authority /><ref name=Lt-Cnl>{{London Gazette |issue=31486 |date=1 August 1919 |page=9865 }}</ref> From 1919 to 1921, Pink carried out executive roles at the RAF's Coastal Aircraft Depot, before being posted at the end of November 1919 as the Officer Commanding the Aircraft Depot in Egypt.<ref name=authority />

===With the RAF in India and 'Pink's War'===
{{main|Pink's War}}
In November 1923, Pink took command of Nos. [[No. 5 Squadron RAF|5]], [[No. 27 Squadron RAF|27]], and [[No. 60 Squadron RAF|60]] Squadrons as No. 2 (Indian) Wing.<ref name=RAF-smallwars>{{cite web|title=History The Small Wars|url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/historysmallwars.cfm|publisher=Royal Air Force|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref> Through the early 1920s, British forces in [[Waziristan]] had undertaken a number of operations to subdue elements of [[Mahsud]] tribes in southern Waziristan, including actions by mounted cavalry. By October 1924 almost of all the tribes had ceased actions against the British, except the Abdur Rahman Khel tribe, who with support from three other tribes continued to raid army outposts. Air Vice-Marshal [[Edward Ellington|Sir Edward Ellington]], then [[Air Officer Commanding]] [[Indian Air Force|RAF India]] since November 1923, decided that the RAF would conduct operations alone, without ground support from the Army, the first time that the RAF had fought independently of other services.<ref name=Oxford /><ref name=ellington>{{cite web|title=Marshal of the RAF Sir Edward Ellington|url=http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Ellington.htm|work=Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref>

Pink formed his headquarters with No 5 Squadron and their [[Bristol F2B]]s at [[Tank, Pakistan|Tank]], before flying to the forward operations base at [[Miramshah]] to brief Nos. 27 and 60 Squadrons. Following the dropping of leaflets to warn the local population, operations commenced with the main aim not of causing casualties to the rebel forces, but to undermine morale and interrupt daily life. Sorties were flown during the day and by moonlight, both to villages and to prevent access to 'safe havens', with 2700 hours having been flown and 250 tons of bombs dropped by the end of the fifty-four days of operations. At the end of April, rebel leaders declared their intention to make peace with British forces, and on 1 May 1924 agreed to terms presented to them at [[Jandola]].<ref name=Oxford />

Following the campaign, the [[India General Service Medal (1909)|India General Service Medal]] was awarded with the Waziristan 1925 clasp, the rarest clasp for the India medal, to the 46 officers and 214 men of the RAF who took part in what became known as [[Pink's War]]. Pink himself was [[mentioned in dispatches]] by Air Vice-Marshal Ellington during his report on the actions in ''[[The London Gazette]]'', with the citation reading:

{{blockquote|I wish to bring to notice the services of Wing Commander R. C. M. Pink, C.B.E., who was in command in WAZIRISTAN. He has shown a fine example to his command in taking part personally in a number of raids. He has shown great resource, determination and energy, and it is due to the same qualities that Nos. 27 and 60 Squadrons, which were under his orders for 14 months previous to the operations, were fit to perform the arduous work required of them.|author=Air Vice-Marshal [[Edward Ellington|Sir Edward Ellington]], [[Air Officer Commanding]] [[Indian Air Force|RAF India]]<ref name=MiD>{{London Gazette |issue=33104 |date=20 November 1925 |page=7601 |supp=y}}</ref>}}

Pink was soon after promoted to [[group captain]] in the [[1926 New Year Honours]] list "in recognition of his services in the field of Waziristan", and was assigned to HQ, [[Air Defence of Great Britain]].<ref name=authority /><ref name=1926-honours>{{cite web|url=http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1926/1926%20-%200013.html|title=New Year Honours, Royal Air Force|work=The London Gazette|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref><ref name=GrpCpt>{{London Gazette |issue=33119 |date=29 December 1925 |page=10 |supp=y }}</ref> He went on to command the School of Technical Training at [[RAF Manston]] from July 1929 to July 1931,<ref name=authority /><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.rafweb.org/Stations/Stations-M.htm#Manston|title=Stations-M|work=Air of Authority – A History of RAF Organisation|language=EN|access-date=2018-03-10}}</ref> returning to ADGB as an [[air commodore]] in July 1931.<ref name=authority /><ref>{{London Gazette| issue = 33731 | date = 30 June 1931 | page = 4250 }}</ref>

==Death==
Pink died of cancer on 7 March 1932 at Princess Mary's RAF Hospital, [[RAF Halton]]. His death at the age of 43 had "in the opinion of many senior RAF officers, denied the service a potential future [[Chief of the Air Staff (United Kingdom)|chief of air staff]]."<ref name=Oxford /> He had two sons by his wife Marie (née Wrigley). One of his sons, [[Squadron Leader]] Charles Richard John Pink, was killed in an air training accident at [[RAF Church Fenton|Church Fenton airfield]] on 9 March 1941.<ref name=Yorkshire-accidents>{{cite web|title=Blenheim K7114 at Church Fenton airfield|url=http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/yorkshire/york41/k7114.html|work=Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref><ref name=CWGC>{{cite web|title=Casualty details – PINK, CHARLES RICHARD JOHN|url=http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2408816/PINK,%20CHARLES%20RICHARD%20JOHN|publisher=Commonwealth War Graves Commission|access-date=8 May 2013}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Royal Air Force|state=collapsed}}
{{Pink's War|state=collapsed}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pink, Richard Charles Montagu}}
[[Category:1888 births]]
[[Category:1932 deaths]]
[[Category:Deaths from cancer in England]]
[[Category:Military personnel of British India]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force air commodores]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Navy officers of World War I]]

Richard Pink - Revision history

Bot: robot: Create/update articles. If there is a mistake please report on my talk page.