Sir Geoffrey  Luis Worthington, CB , KBE, CBE and Legion of Merit

Sir Geoffrey  Luis Worthington was born  on 26 April 1903 at Gravesend, Kent as the son of a Royal Navy Captain.

 He attended HMS Conway, a naval educational Unit before completing his education at Eastbourne College and then joining his family business in cement.

 This clearly did not suit young Geoffrey for in 1921 he joined the RAF as a Cadet at RAF College, Cranwell winning the Sword Of Honour for top student at Cranwell and in 1923 was granted a commission as a Pilot Officer.

 His career as a pilot included early trials of landing aircraft on the decks of ships before being grounded for medical reasons. When it became clear that he would not resume flying, on 22 October 1924, he left the service and travelled to Australia for two years a s a sheep farmer before returning to the UK, on 6 April 1926, and taking up his commission with a non-flying role is RAF Stores.

 In 1926 he was trained at the School of Store accounting and storekeeping and from then of took a number of postings as a stores or equipment officer building up seniority. He served a lengthy spell in India where he was to marry his wife.

 In the Second World War he held a post as Assistant Chief of Staff at SHAEF where he has prime responsibility for the logistics around D Day after which he held the primary role in the repatriation of RAF personal who here being held as Prisoners of War in Germany.

 For this work he received the following honours - On 19 June 1945 CBE and on 9 October 1945 Legion of Merit from United States Government.

 After the war be became Senior Equipment Officer at ACSEA and Far East Command followed by roles as Director of Equipment before being given the Group Command of 40 Group Responsible for all equipment except bombs and explosives and then 42 Group responsible for all ammunition and fuel depots.

 In 1958 he was made Director General of all RAF equipment.

 During this period he made two major reforms, firstly he carried out a major reorganisation of the vast number of RAF logistic bases in the UK and the rest of the world. By his efforts the supply chain improved markedly. The second notable event was his early realisation of the coming age of computers with the installation of early computers at RAF Hendon for record keeping well before comparable installations of equipment elsewhere.

 For this work he received the following honours - 28 December 1956 CB and on 29 December 1959 KBE.

 He remarked that the two biggest challenges that he faced in this period were the supply/storage of suitable Nuclear Bombs and supply of suitable underwear for  servicewomen.

  On 12 April 1961 he retired from the RAF and made his permanent home at

 Brickwall Close, Burnham on Crouch where he sailed and became an Oyster Farmer but two bad winters destroyed his stock and he gave up employment to spend his time divided between sailing and contentedly tending his allotment.

 Clearly some of the drive was still there as he studied and was awarded an Open University Degree in General Science in 1988 at the age of 85.

 He married Margaret Joan Stevenson at Simla, India 3 October 1931 having three children. Sadly Margaret died in 1989, three years before Geoffrey.

 Geoffrey died on 28 April 1992 in hospital after a short illness

 

 His funeral was held at Creeksea Parish Church on 7 May 1992