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Hugh Montague Trenchard was born in Taunton, England on February 3, 1873. At the age of twenty, he was commissioned into the Royal Scots Fusiliers and served in the South African War and later in Nigeria.

In 1913 he learned to fly at Thomas Sopwith's flying school at BrooklandsBrooklands was a motor racing circuit built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. The brainchild of Hugh Locke-King, it was opened on June 17 1907 and was the first custom-built banked motor race circuit in the world. Requirements of speed and spectator visi. At age 39 he was just short of 40, the maximum age for military student pilots. According to his instructor, "he would never have made a good pilot" but "he was a model pupil." After passing his course, he transferred to the Royal Flying CorpsThe Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of World War I. Origin and Early History Formed by Royal Warrant on May 13, 1912, the RFC superseded the Air Battalion of the Royal Engineers. By the end of that ye (RFC) as second in command of the Central Flying School. In August 1915Events January 12 The Rocky Mountain National Park is established by an act of Congress. January 12 United States House of Representatives rejects proposal to give women the right to vote. January 13 An earthquake (6. 8 in Richter scale) in Avezzano, Ital, Major-General Trenchard became the RFC's General Officer Commanding in the field.

In August 1917Events January 2 The Royal Bank of Canada takes over Quebec Bank. January 22 World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe. January 25 The Danish West Indies is sold to the United States for $25 million January 25 Anti- he agreed to return to Britain and re-organise training with Robert Smith-Barry at a new school at GosportGosport is a small town on the South Coast of England, in Hampshire. It lies opposite the city of Portsmouth, on the western side of Portsmouth Harbour. There is a ferry to Portsmouth. The Rowner area of the peninsular was known to have been settled in Sa. The curriculum combined classroom training and dual flight instruction. Students were not led away from potentially dangerous manoeuvres but deliberately exposed to them in controlled environments so they could learn to recover from errors of judgement.

The Air Council was formed in January 1918Events January January 8 President Woodrow Wilson announces his " Fourteen Points" for the aftermath of World War I. February February 3 The Twin Peaks Tunnel begins service in San Francisco as the longest streetcar tunnel in the world (11,920 feet long)., and Trenchard became Chief of the Air Staff. He helped establish the RAF in April 1918 when the RFC was merged with the Royal Naval Air ServiceThe Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy until near the end of World War I. When the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was founded on April 13 1912 it was intended to encompass all military flying. The Navy however was not pleased at al, but he resigned two weeks before its inauguration after a quarrel with the Air SecretaryThe Secretary of State for Air was a cabinet level British position, in charge of the Air Ministry. It was created on January 10, 1919 to manage the Royal Air Force. On April 1, 1964 the Air Ministry was incorporated into the Ministry of Defence and the p, Lord Rothermere .

Returning to active duty, Major-General Trenchard began in June 1918 to organize intensive strategic bombing attacks on German railways, airfields and industrial centres. These attacks used the RAF's 55 & 100 squadrons as part of the Independent Air Force based near Nancy, France, and continued until the end of the war.

Trenchard returned as Chief of the Air Staff in 1919 under Winston Churchill, and remained until retiring in 1929.

On 17th July 1920, Air Marshal Sir Hugh Trenchard married Katherine Boyle, the widow of James Boyle, son of the Earl of Glasgow, at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster.

After the war, the RAF was budgeted to shrink from over 250 to 25 squadrons. Against this background of demobilisation and continued savage budget cuts, Trenchard fought to keep the air force separate from army and navy, and built the basis for a much larger organisation whose time would come in 1940.

Trenchard showed the effectiveness of strategic bombing for colonial counter-insurgency by 1920's operations in Somaliland and Iraq. He wrote that the RAF could even suppress “industrial disturbances or risings” in England itself. Churchill told him not to refer to this proposal again, but by World War II strategic bombing had become standard military doctrine.

In 1930 he entered the House of Lords as Baron Trenchard (upgraded to Viscount Trenchard in 1936), and was appointed commissioner of the Metropolitan Police. Trenchard carried important police reforms and established the Police College at Hendon.

He died on February 10, 1956.