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FULLER
1. Name
2. Date Commissioned
3. Date Retired
4. Rank
5. Awarded Wings
6. Flying Schools
7. Aircraft Types Flown
8. Squadrons
9. Aircraft Carriers
10. Senior Appointments
11. Decorations
John Massey FULLER
1 September 1917
11 May 1948
Died 24 August 1966
Colonel
July 1925
R.A.F Netheravon 16 June 1924
R.A.F Leuchars 9 January 1925
TSR types eg Fairey HID etc
Flight in Furious - possibly 421 Flight
484 Flight - Courageous
465 Flight - Courageous
Furious 1925
Courageous 1928
Senior appointments F.A.A.
Mobile Naval Airfield Organisation - Senior Officer.September 1943 to July 1944
R.M.
Adjutant Portsmouth Div. 1930-33
DAAG RM 1935.
OC 28 Bn. RM. September 1944 – January 1945.
Staff of CGRM as AAG May 1945 – November 1946
1914/18 and 1939/45 General Service War medals
12. General
13. RAF Rank
"Crash" Fuller was one of the 19 RM. Officers who were on three overlappingflying courses at RAF Netheravon in 1924/25 and who were subsequently employed in F.A.A. Flights in China, the Mediterranean and Home waters. Together with their Naval counterparts they formed the nucleus of the new Fleet Air Arm branch of the Royal Air Force which resulted from the Trenchard - Keyes agreement of 1924.
Little can be traced of Fuller's F.A.A. career except that he had an unfortunate proneness to accidents which earned him his nickname of "Crash". There is photograph in the Museum photographic library showing him sitting on the tail of an aircraft which he had forced landed, waiting to be picked up by the Courageous. There is also an anecdote that for a wager of £5 he and Glen Kidston jumped off the flight deck of an aircraft carrier in bathing costumes using umbrellas as parachutes. Needless to state the umbrellas collapsed.
Between service in the Furious and Courageous he appears to have been employed on instructional duties by the RAF at Leuchars and Gosport.
On return to Corps Duty he was a very popular Adjutant at Portsmouth Division from 1930 to 1933. Then followed various staff appointments in Whitehall until he retired on 11 May 1948. It was his plan which led to the reorganisation of the Corps following the Lamplough Committee report.
He died on 24 Aug. 1966.
Flying Officer 16 June 1924
Flying Marines
A History of Royal Marines Aviation
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