2017 –<\/strong> Astronaut Chris Hadfield – Hamilton\n\n\t\tAir Commodore Leonard J. Birchall CM, OBE, DFC, OO, CD\n\t<\/h3>\n\t
On April 4, 1942 then-Squadron Leader Birchall was piloting a Canso flying boat over the Indian Ocean when he sighted and reported an advancing Japanese fleet intent on attacking Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). The Allied forces’ response to Birchall’s call successfully blunted the force of the attack and preserved the British fleet for future action.<\/p>\n
However, Birchall’s Canso and its crew of eight were shot down and he, along with five survivors, spent the next three and a half years as Japanese prisoners of war. As a senior officer among the POWs, Birchall’s true leadership skills came to the forefront. He confronted his captors, often risking his own life and suffering severe beatings, in order to preserve the morale, dignity and safety of lower rank prisoners of war. His example inspired others to do the same also at grave personal risk.<\/p>\n
Air Commodore Birchall graduated from Royal Military College (RMC) in Kingston in 1937. He became one of the longest-serving Royal Canadian Air Force career officers, and during his career served as commandant of RMC.<\/p>\n
Air Commodore Birchall mentored and shared his thoughts on leadership and taught the importance of: integrity (which gave the confidence and courage for others to follow); responsibility (to not blame others but to shoulder criticism when required); and moral courage (to rely on one’s sense of right and wrong).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t![\"BIRCHALL](\"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/BIRCHALL-LEADERSHIP-AWARD-BAS-RELIEF.jpg\" "\\"BIRCHALL")
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The Birchall Leadership Award<\/strong> is recognized through a bas-relief sculpture including an engraved brass plaque and an inscription of the name of the award recipient, accompanied by the attached description of the award on a framed scroll.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RMC Foundation Mission To engage alumni, and Canadians alike, in donorship and sponsorship activities above and beyond the mandate of the Canadian Forces to preserve and enhance the experience, history, traditions and culture of the Canadian Military Colleges as we grow and develop Canada’s future leaders. Contact The Foundation Supporting Canada’s Future Leaders Prestigious Leadership…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"parent":29591,"menu_order":4,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-30558","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30558"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/30558\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/29591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Air](\"https:\/\/www.rmcalumni.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/Air-Commodore-Leonard-Birchall-in-Canso-cockpit.jpg\" "\\"Air")
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