Cdr Geoffrey R. Higgs AFC 1925-2015

Geoffrey R. Higgs was eighteen when he volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm as a pilot. Training in Canada began a Naval flying career that spanned thirty-years. Front line squadron service, embarked on aircraft carriers, was followed by qualification as a flying instructor. Selection for the Empire Test Pilots School at Farnborough and qualification as an experimental Test Pilot changed the direction of his naval career. In all Geoff Higgs flew nearly one hundred types of aircraft and carried out close to a thousand deck landings. Initial flight testing of a number of new naval aircraft, as well as research flying in support of the development of aircraft such as the English Electric Lightning and Concorde added to a unique career.
In 1965 as CO of 'C' Squadron he also took 3 Buccaneer Mk 2 Aircraft to Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, NAS Pensacola in Florida and the Carrier USS Lexington for Hot weather Trials.