LG GROVESAWARDS

LG GROVES AWARDS

These four awards have taken place every year since 1946:

1) LG GROVES MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR AIR SAFETY

This prize is awarded for the most important contribution made during the previous year towards improving the safety of personnel, aircraft or equipment in flight, or enhancing the survival of aircrew. All serving officers or other ranks of the Royal Navy, Army and RAF are eligible for this prize as are groups comprised of eligible personnel.

2) LG GROVES MEMORIAL AWARD FOR GROUND SAFETY

Formerly known as the second memorial award, this award is made for the most important contribution during the previous year towards improving the safety of personnel, aircraft or equipment on the ground either at a flying station or an associated unit.

3) LG GROVES MEMORIAL PRIZE FOR METEOROLOGY

This prize is awarded for the most important contributions to the science of meteorology, the application of meteorology to aviation or operational meteorology. Awards will be made primarily for work done or completed during the previous year, but account may be taken of work done in earlier years. All serving officers and other ranks of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF and all members of the MET office are eligible for this prize as are groups comprised of eligible personnel.

4) LG GROVES AWARD FOR METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATION

This award is made for outstanding work in the field of meteorological observation particularly where flying dutues or service at sea are involved. Awards will be made primarily for work done or completed during the previous year, but account may be taken of work done in earlier years. All serving officers and other ranks of the Royal Navy, Army, RAF and all members of the MET office are eligible for this prize as are groups comprised of eligible personnel.

History of awards

In 1946 Major Keith Grimble Groves and his wife Dorothy placed the sum of £3,000 at the disposal of the Air Council to be used for three annual prizes in memory of their only son Sergeant (MAO) Louis Grimble Groves, RAF Volunteer Reserve, No 517 Squadron Coastal Command, who lost his life while flying on a meteorological sortie on 10th September 1945.

In 1960 they generously gave a further £1,600 nominal value of 2.5% Consols to increase the value of existing prizes and to set up a new 'general purpose' award which was named the "second memorial award".

Major and Mrs Groves gave a further £100 in January 1965 to cover a temporary drop in income which resulted from the reinvestment of the trust fund in equities following the Trustee Investment Act 1961. Major Keith Groves died in January 1979 and Mrs Dorothy Groves the following year in June 1980 and under their wills the Trust has received further donations of £21,500.

The Groves family has been associated with the Royal Air Force ever since its foundation. Major Keith Grimble Groves was awarded an OBE for services to the RAF which perhaps is the first army officer to have received such an accolade. Keith was also the brother of Air Commodore Robert Marsland Groves who was killed on duty in Egypt in 1920, and who was originally a Captain in the Royal Navy and a founder member of the Royal Naval Air Service. He became Deputy Chief of the Air Staff when RFC and RNAS were amalgamated to form the Royal Air Force. The Groves family founded a number of prizes in his memory, one of which is still awarded to the graduate office who, on passing out of Cranwell is selected as the best all round pilot on his course.

The LG Groves Awards are comprised four awards that are awarded annually in memory of Louis Grimble Groves and the 8 other airmen of flight RG380.