James Molony Spaight

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James Molony Spaight , CB , CBE (born October 7, 1877 in Affock, County Clare , Ireland, † January 8, 1968 in Bath ) was a British lawyer and leading theoretician of aerial warfare.

Life

The younger son of the farmer Robert Saight (1845–1888) attended Trinity College, Dublin , where he earned an LL.B. and LL.D. completed. He had previously entered the civil service (1901) and soon afterwards served in South Africa . In November 1907 he married Constanze Elisabeth († 1962), the daughter of Colonel William Fitz Henry Spaight from Ardnatagle.

Spaight specialized in international martial law and wrote "War Rights on Land" in 1911. In 1918 he was awarded the Order of the British Empire and transferred to the recently founded Ministry of Aviation, where he remained until his retirement in 1937. In 1923 he was part of the British delegation to the Legal Commission in The Hague . In 1930 he became director of the Ministry of Aviation.

He specialized in air warfare law and focused on air strikes of urban areas. His views on military objects and targets changed during World War II. He previously believed that air strikes could win wars with fewer deaths. But the war was so “total” and dependent on mass industrialization that the dividing line between military and civil objects was blurred.

Fonts (selection)

  • War Rights on Land (1911)
  • Aircraft in War (1914)
  • Aircraft in Peace and the Law (1919)
  • Air Power and War Rights (1924/33/47)
  • Aircraft and Commerce in War (1926)
  • The Beginnings of Organized Air Power (1927)
  • Pseudo-Security (1928)
  • Air Power and the Cities (1930)
  • To International Air Force (1932)
  • Air Power in the Next War (1938)
  • Can America Prevent Frightfulness from the Air? (1939)
  • The Sky's the Limit (1940)
  • The Battle of Britain (1941)
  • Blockade by Air (1942)
  • Volcano Island (1943)
  • Bombing Vindicated (1944)
  • The Atomic Problem (1948)
  • Air Power can Disarm (1948)

literature

  • Phillip S. Meilinger: Spaight, James Molony. In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com ), as of 2004
  • Robin DS Higham: The military intellectuals in Britain, 1918-1939 . Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 1966, pp. 230-233.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Spaight, James Molony
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British lawyer and theorist of aerial warfare
DATE OF BIRTH October 7, 1877
PLACE OF BIRTH Affock, County Clare , Ireland
DATE OF DEATH January 8, 1968
Place of death Bath