Air Vice Marshal Eric Bourne Coulter Betts (1897-1971) began his career in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War. He became a flying ace credited with six aerial victories, although acedom was incidental to his more important mission of long range photographic reconnaissance, for which he was decorated.He remained in military service postwar, rising through the officer's ranks of the Royal Air Force to the rank of group captain just before the Second World War began.