Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Third Supplement.djvu/276

  of the Royal Flying Corps was his special interest. In September 1913 he was given the new post of director-general of military aeronautics. He brought a keen, sympathetic, well-disciplined mind to the moulding of the new service, which, in training and spirit, was second to none at the outbreak of the European War. On 13 August 1914 he took the force to France, and six days later its aeroplanes were flying over the enemy. The air reconnaissance reports did much to help the British army to escape the enveloping movements of the German advance.

In November 1914, when the main burden of the War lay on the infantry, Henderson, who had been promoted major-general in October, took command of the first division, but a month later he was back as general officer commanding the Royal Flying Corps, and he held this command until October 1917. He remained in France until October 1915, when he handed over to Brigadier-General H. M. Trenchard and went to the War Office. There were difficulties at home which taxed all his enthusiasm and energy, and he did not escape criticism. But a sufficient answer lies in the fact that England emerged from the War with the largest and best equipped air force in the world.

Henderson was promoted lieutenant-general in 1917, and in the autumn of that year he worked hard on the plans for the amalgamation of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service into the Royal Air Force. In January 1918 he became vice-president of the newly-formed Air Council; shortly afterwards both he and the chief of the air staff, Major-General Trenchard, found themselves strongly opposed to the policy of Lord Rothermere, the first air minister. The chief of the staff resigned in April; Henderson followed suit, and the air service knew him no more. After a spell as area-commandant in France (August to October 1918) and as military counsellor at the embassy, Paris (October 1918 to June 1919), he went to Geneva to organize and direct the League of Red Cross societies. In this work his tact and the charm of his personality were of conspicuous service. He died at Geneva 17 August 1921.

Henderson was created K.C.B. in 1914 and K.C.V.O. in 1919. He married in 1895 Henrietta Caroline, second daughter of Henry Robert Dundas, and granddaughter of the first Baron Napier of Magdala. He left one daughter, his only son having been killed in a flying accident in 1918.  HERBERT, AUBERON THOMAS, eighth and eleventh  (1876–1916), politician and airman, was born 25 May 1876. He was the second son of the Hon. Auberon Edward William Molyneux Herbert [q.v.], by his wife, Lady Florence Amabell, sister of Francis Thomas de Grey Cowper, seventh and last Earl Cowper [q.v.]. His elder brother died as a child in 1882, and his mother died in 1886, leaving him heir general to his uncle, Earl Cowper. On Earl Cowper's death without issue in 1905, the baronies of Lucas and Dingwall devolved upon his nephew, who also became a co-heir to the barony of Butler.

Herbert was educated at Bedford grammar school and at Balliol College, Oxford, which he entered in 1895. In 1898 and 1899 he rowed at No. 7 in the university boat-race against Cambridge. In the South African War he acted as correspondent to The Times, and was wounded in the foot. The wound was mismanaged, and it was eventually found necessary to amputate his leg below the knee. After he became Lord Lucas he was private secretary for a year to the secretary of state for war, Mr. (afterwards Viscount) Haldane. As one of the few liberal peers he was marked out for preferment, and in 1908 he took office in Mr. Asquith's government as under-secretary of state for war; he held this position until 1911, when he was transferred to the Colonial Office as under-secretary. A few months later he was again moved, being appointed parliamentary secretary to the Board of Agriculture. In 1914 he became president of the Board of Agriculture, though without a seat in the Cabinet. He remained president until the coalition government was formed in 1915, when he retired.

During his short political career Lucas showed useful qualities, but to a man of his vigorous and daring temperament the call to more active service in the European War was irresistible. In spite of his physical disability and the fact that he had passed the standard age, Lucas joined the Royal Flying Corps, and proved himself a skilful pilot. He saw much service in Egypt, and then returned to England (1916) as an instructor. On one occasion a pupil whom he was training fell with him and was killed, but Lucas escaped. He was offered the command of a squadron 250