Air Vice Marshall Richard Saul

The man responsible for shaping for whole of the Fighter Command structure and selecting the Kenton Bar bunker as his No13 group headquarters was Air Vice Marshall Saul.
He began his military career on 1 August 1915 with the Army by holding the rank of Captain. On 5 June 1916 he took to the skies as an observer with the No.16 Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in aircraft such as the RE8 (Reconnaissance Experimental) and the BE2 (Bleriot Experimental 2) His passion for flying was obvious and in August 1916 he began to train as a pilot.
After completing his pilot training he rejoined the RFC on the 24th April 1917 as a pilot. His military excellence was noticed early in his career and as such, was awarded the rank of Major in November 1917. This lead the way to him commanding his own RFC squadron in December 1917.
In the April of 1918, Major Saul transferred to the Royal Air Force as Squadron Leader. Over the following years his RAF roles were varied, from commanding various flying squadrons to staff officer in Iraq. His involvement with the Royal Air Force Fighter groups began in 1937 when, now Air Commodore, he was made Senior Air Officer at No.11 Fighter group. Following promotion to Air Vice Marshall on 1st July 1939 he took command of 13 Group Fighter Command.
During the first few days of September 1940, Air Vice Marshall Park (Commander 11 Group) brought to the attention of Sir Hugh Dowding, that he believed that the squadrons transferred to 11 Group from 12 Group were not as highly trained as those that had been transferred from 13 Group. He made a comparison that showed that squadrons transferred from 13 Group had been credited with forty-three aircraft destroyed at a cost of two pilots missing and two wounded, while those transferred from 12 Group had brought down only seventeen aircraft and had lost a total of thirteen pilots for the same period. AVM Park claimed that AVM Richard Saul always chose experienced squadrons to be transferred to units in the south, where AVM Leigh-Mallory (commander No 12 Group) did not.
Air Vice Marshall Saul commanded No13 Group until 4th Feb 1941 when he took command of No12 Group Fighter Command. His replacement at 13 Group was Air Vice Marshall Andrews.