Air Marshal Sir Peter Roy Maxwell Drummond, was an Australian-born senior commander in the Royal Air Force (RAF). He rose from private soldier in World War I to air marshal in World War II. Drummond enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in 1914 and the following year saw service as a medical orderly during the Gallipoli campaign. He joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1916 and became a fighter ace in the Middle Eastern theatre, where he was awarded the Military Cross and the Distinguished Service Order and Bar. Transferring to the RAF on its formation in 1918, he remained in the British armed forces for the rest of his life.
Lieutenant Drummond (far right) with Captain Ross Macpherson Smith (far left), Major Lawrence Wackett (third left), and other officers of No. 1 Squadron AFC, c. 1916
Air Vice-Marshal Drummond (left) with British Minister of State of the Middle East Richard Casey (centre) and Air Marshal Sir Arthur Tedder (right) in May 1942
Unfinished sketch of Drummond by Cuthbert Orde, August 1945
Commando was a very long range Consolidated Liberator II aircraft adapted for passenger transport, to serve as the personal aircraft of Prime Minister Winston Churchill. Commando disappeared without a trace on 27 March 1945 over the North Atlantic Ocean, while on a flight from RAF Northolt to Lajes Field in the Azores, en route to Ottawa in Canada. The cause of the disappearance of the aircraft remains unknown to this day.
January 1943. AL504 Commando, VIP taxying at Lyneham, Wiltshire, with Winston Churchill on board returning from Casablanca
The Prime Minister, Winston Churchill in RAF uniform, accompanied by Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Portal, Chief of the Air Staff, leaving Commando at RAF Lyneham, Wiltshire, on their return from the Casablanca Conference. The picture shows Commando in its initial dark earth and dark green with night black undersides standard RAF Bomber Command night bomber colour scheme in which it was delivered from the factory.
interior of AL504 Commando