SIR JAMES

BARNES

36 years at Air Ministry

Sir James Barnes, K.C.B. K.B.E., who has died at the age of 77 on his way to South Africa, was the first Permanent UnderSecretary of State for Air to spend his full career in the Air Ministry. When he retired, at his own request, in 1955, he had completed 36 years in the Ministry and was unique in having known personally and worked closely with every Chief of the Air Staff.

James Horace Barnes was born on December 14. 1891, the son of Richard Barnes. He was educated at Manchester Grammnar School and Merton College, Oxford (where he took a First in Honour Mods.) and joined the Air Ministry-tben only one year old-in June. 1919. as a Clerk (Class 1) He served in various secretaTial and finance brancbes, -gnsng regular promotion, throughout a period when the strength of the Royal Air Force, decimated after the 1914-18 War, was the subject of criticism by pacifists and patrons alike. He saw the Service sink to a dangerously low level until the introduction of the expansion progmmmne of 1934 and its reorganization in 1936. During his service the R.A.F. grew from 30,000 men to nearly 300,000, and the Air Estimates rose from £20m. to £500m.

He became Deputy Director of Civil Aviation in 1940-the difficult period which called for the maintenance of certain "civil " operations in the first months of the Second World War. In 1941 he was appointed an Assistant Under-Secretary of State for Air. In this pos he undertook great responsibility in connexion with supply and organization of the R.A.F. during the critical war years. He became a Joint Deputy Under-Secretary of State in 1943, and two years later was appointed the sole Deputy UnderSecretary. During the illness of the then Permanent Under-Secretary. Sir William Brown, Barnes acted as P.U.S., and on BrowT's death was appointed to succeed him in 1947.