Air Commodore

Air Commodore

Air commodore is an air-officer rank which originated in and continues to be used by the Royal Air Force...

 David Case is the highest ranking black officer in the Royal Air Force

Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...

 of the United Kingdom, and as of 2000, at the age of 47, he became the highest ranking black officer ever to serve in Britain's armed forces. He was born in Guyana

Guyana

Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...

, and immigrated to Britain at the age of 5. He was educated at Beckenham Grammar School

Langley Park School for Boys

Langley Park School for Boys is a boys' comprehensive secondary school in Beckenham in the London Borough of Bromley, with a mixed-gender sixth form...

 and learnt to fly on a Flying Scholarship while still at school. He joined the RAF as a 19-year old cadet to read aeronautical engineering at The Queen's University of Belfast

Queen's University of Belfast

Queen's University Belfast is a public research university in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The university's official title, per its charter, is the Queen's University of Belfast. It is often referred to simply as Queen's, or by the abbreviation QUB...

. He received his commission in 1975, and was awarded the distinguished Sword of Honour

Sword of Honour

The Sword of Honour trilogy by Evelyn Waugh is his look at the Second World War. It consists of three novels, Men at Arms , Officers and Gentlemen and Unconditional Surrender , which loosely parallel his wartime experiences...

, which is bestowed upon the top cadet officer of the year.