View source for Lloyd Samuel Breadner

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
<!-- This article is a part of [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Aircraft]] and [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Biography/Military]]. -->
{{Infobox military person
| name          = Lloyd Samuel Breadner
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=CAN|CB|DSC|size=100%}}
| birth_date    = {{birth date|df=yes|1894|7|14}}
| death_date    = {{death date and age|df=yes|1952|3|14|1894|7|14}}
| birth_place   = [[Carleton Place]], [[Ontario]], Canada
| death_place   = [[Boston]], [[Massachusetts]], U.S.
| placeofburial = 
| image         = Air Marshal Breadner in March 1945.jpg
| caption       = Air Marshal Breadner in March 1945
| nickname      = 
| allegiance    = Canada
| serviceyears  = 1915 &ndash; 1945
| rank          = [[Air Chief Marshal]]
| branch        = [[Royal Flying Corps]]<br /> [[Royal Air Force]] <br> [[Royal Canadian Air Force]]
| commands      = 
| unit          = 
| battles       = 
{{tree list}}
* [[World War I]]
* [[World War II]]
** [[Battle of Britain]]
{{tree list/end}}
| awards        = [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]<br />[[Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Service Cross]]
| laterwork     = 
}}
[[Air Chief Marshal]]<ref group="note">This rank was used by the 20th century [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] and replaced with the rank of [[General officer|General]] in 1968 with the unification of the [[Canadian Forces]], a rank which has been retained in the 21st century Royal Canadian Air Force. See [[:Category:Canadian Forces Air Command generals]] [[:Category:Royal Canadian Air Force generals|Royal Canadian Air Force generals]] for such officers. Breadner was one of only two Canadian Air Chief Marshals, the other being [[Frank Robert Miller]].</ref> '''Lloyd Samuel Breadner''', [[Order of the Bath|CB]], [[Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)|DSC]] (14 July 1894 &ndash; 14 March 1952) was a [[Canadians|Canadian]] military pilot and [[Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force|Chief of the Air Staff]] during [[World War II]].

==Early career==
Breadner obtained his pilot's certificate at Wright Flying School and was commissioned in the British [[Royal Naval Air Service]] on 28 December 1915. During [[World War I]], he served on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]] as a [[Fighter aircraft|fighter]] pilot in the [[No. 203 Squadron RAF|No. 3 (Naval) Squadron]]. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant (RNAS) on 31 December 1916. He was awarded the [[Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Service Cross]] on 23 May 1917. The citation read:
{{blockquote|For conspicuous gallantry and skill in leading his patrol against hostile formations. He brought down three hostile machines and forced several others to land. On the 6th April, 1917, he drove down a hostile machine which was wrecked while attempting to land in a ploughed field. On the morning of the 11th April, 1917, he destroyed a hostile machine which fell in flames, brought down another in a spinning nose dive with one wing folded up, and forced a third to land.|London Gazette<ref name="dsc" />}}
Squadron Commander Lloyd Breadner and 3 (Naval) Squadron were posted to RAF Walmer during the Winter of 1917/1918.
He was released from the [[Royal Air Force|RAF]]<ref group="note">The RNAS had been joined with the Royal Flying Corps in 1918</ref> with the rank of [[Major (United Kingdom)|major]]<ref group="note">The RAF used Army-style ranks until mid-1919.</ref> in March 1919.

==Command==
He was commissioned and promoted to [[Squadron Leader]] in 1920 and transferred to the [[Royal Canadian Air Force]] (RCAF) on its formation in 1924. He became Controller of Civil Aviation in 1922, and later commanded [[CFB Borden|Camp Borden]] from 15 January 1924, to 23 September 1925. He was promoted to [[Wing Commander (rank)|Wing Commander]] on 1 April 1924. After attending [[RAF Staff College, Andover|RAF Staff College]], he was the [[Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force|Director of the RCAF]] from 15 February 1928, to 29 April 1932. From 1932 until 1935, he commanded [[CFB Trenton|Trenton]] and then attended the [[Imperial Defence College]]. He was promoted to [[Group Captain]] on 1 February 1936, and to [[Air Commodore]] on 4 August 1938.{{fact|date=July 2025}}

[[File:Admiral of the Fleet Earl Mountbatten of Burma A18826.jpg|thumb|Breadner (fifth from left) at the Quebec Conference of 1943.]]
He became [[Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force|Chief of Air Staff]] on 29 May 1940, and having been promoted to [[Air Marshal]] on 19 November 1941, became [[Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief]] [[RCAF Overseas]] in January 1944. Breadner was promoted on his retirement on 25 November 1945, to [[Air Chief Marshal]], the first Canadian to hold this rank.{{fact|date=July 2025}}

On 30 November 1944, while he was Chief of Air Staff, his son, Flying Officer Donald Lloyd Breadner, was killed after an air gunnery exercise, while flying a de Havilland Mosquito from [[RCAF Station Debert]], in Nova Scotia. He was the only son of Breadner and his wife, Mary Evelyn. They also had three daughters.<ref>"Donald Lloyd Breadner," Canadian Virtual War Memorial, http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/virtualmem/Detail/2687294?DONALD%20LLOYD%20BREADNER</ref>

==Awards==
*23 May 1917: [[Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)|Distinguished Service Cross]] 
*1 January 1943: Companion, [[Order of the Bath]]
*25 October 1943: Military Cross, First Class (Belgium)
*25 August 1944: Grand Officers Cross of [[Polonia Restituta]] (Poland){{Clarify|date=April 2011}}
*5 October 1946: [[Order of the White Lion]], Class II (Czechoslovakia)
*20 December 1946: [[Legion of Merit]] (Degree of Commander)
*12 September 1947: Commander of the [[Legion of Honour]] (France)
*12 June 1948: [[King Haakon VII's Cross of Liberty]] (Norway)

==References and notes==
;Notes
{{Reflist |group=note}}
;Citations

{{Reflist|refs=
<ref name="dsc">{{London Gazette|issue=30088|supp=y|page=5053|date=23 May 1917
}}</ref>
}}
;Bibliography

==External links==
{{commons category}}
*[http://www.junobeach.org/e/3/can-pep-can-breadner-e.htm Juno Beach Centre profile] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140306145621/http://www.junobeach.org/e/3/can-pep-can-breadner-e.htm |date=6 March 2014 }}
*[http://www.theaerodrome.com/aces/canada/breadner.php The Aerodrome]
*[https://legionmagazine.com/en/2011/05/canadas-25-most-renowned-military-leaders/ Canada's 25 Most Renowned Military Leaders] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111203223/https://legionmagazine.com/en/2011/05/canadas-25-most-renowned-military-leaders/ |date=11 November 2020 }}

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[James Stanley Scott|J S Scott]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force|Director of the RCAF]]|years=1928 &ndash; 1932}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Albert Cuffe|A A L Cuffe]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[George Croil|G M Croil]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force|Chief of the Air Staff]] ([[Royal Canadian Air Force|RCAF]])|years=1940 &ndash; 1943}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Robert Leckie (aviator)|R Leckie]]}}
|-
{{s-bef|before=[[Gus Edwards (RCAF officer)|H Edwards]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief]] [[RCAF Overseas]]|years=1944 &ndash; 1945}}
{{s-aft|after=[[George Owen Johnson|G O Johnson]]}}
|-
{{s-end}}

{{Commander of the Royal Canadian Air Force}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Breadner, Lloyd}}
[[Category:1894 births]]
[[Category:1952 deaths]]
[[Category:Graduates of the Royal College of Defence Studies]]
[[Category:Royal Canadian Air Force officers]]
[[Category:Royal Naval Air Service aviators]]
[[Category:Royal Canadian Air Force air marshals of World War II]]
[[Category:Battle of Britain]]
[[Category:Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:People from Carleton Place]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Legion of Merit]]
[[Category:Canadian recipients of the Distinguished Service Cross (United Kingdom)]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Croix de guerre (Belgium)]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Legion of Honour]]
[[Category:Recipients of the Order of Polonia Restituta]]
[[Category:Grand Officers of the Order of the White Lion]]
[[Category:Canadian military personnel from Ontario]]
[[Category:Recipients of the King Haakon VII Freedom Cross]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force officers]]
[[Category:Royal Naval Air Service personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Royal Air Force personnel of World War I]]