1953 he was tasked with the formidable duty of planning the flypast for the Coronation Review of the RAF at RAF Odiham which took place on 15 July. This involved scheduling 640 aircraft to pass the reviewing point in 27 minutes. On completion of the flypast he marched to the saluting dais to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth, who bestowed him on the spot as a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. On 1 October 1953 he was appointed Assistant Chief of the Air Staff with responsibility for RAF training. On 22 January 1956 he was promoted to acting air marshal and appointed as Commander in Chief of the 2nd Tactical Air Forces. In July 1957 his promotion to air marshal was made permanent and he was appointed Commander in Chief, Far East Air Force. During this period, his portrait was painted by Elva Blacker; it is now in the RAF Museum. On 1 July 1959 Lord Bandon was promoted to air chief marshal and his final RAF appointment came on 1 March 1961 when he became Commander, Allied Air Forces Central Europe. The Earl's disregard for any regulations or items of protocol which he considered unimportant landed him in trouble on a number of occasions throughout his career, one such being in 1957 when he received a reprimand from George Ward, Secretary of State for Air, for stating to the British press that tactical nuclear weapons would soon be issued to air forces in Europe. Another reprimand arrived from Lord Mountbatten of Burma after his de facto hijacking of the Indian Ocean island of Gan as a RAF staging post. During his tenure as C in C, FEAF he took the opportunity of flying aboard Sunderland 'P-Peter' of 205/209 Sqn when it made the last ever flight by a RAF flying boat on 15 May 1959. He then took the salute at the disbandment of the Squadron at Changi on the 31st of the month. He retired from the RAF on 6 February 1964 and took up residence at the family estate in Cork. Private life Bandon married Maybel Elizabeth Playfair, the daughter of Raymond Playfair, on 28 February 1933 at Nairobi Cathedral, in Kenya. They divorced thirteen years later in 1946 just before he married Lois Russell, daughter of prominent Australian Francis Russell, on 2 October 1946. In retirement the Earl discovered the pleasures of fishing, particularly