Air Commodore Charles Rumney Samson, CMG, DSO & Bar, AFC (8 July 1883 – 5 February 1931) was a British naval aviation pioneer.

Samson took part in several early naval aviation experiments, including the development of navigation lights and bomb sights.

He was the first British pilot to take off from a ship, on 10 January 1912, flying a Short Improved S.27 from a ramp mounted on the foredeck of the battleship HMS Africa, which was at anchor in the river Medway.

On 9 May 1912 he became the first pilot to take off from a moving ship, using the same ramp and aircraft, now fitted to the battleship HMS Hibernia during the 1912 Naval Review in Weymouth Bay.

When the First World War broke out, Samson took the Eastchurch RNAS Squadron to France, where it supported Allied ground forces along the French and Belgian frontiers.

In the late summer of 1914, with too few aircraft at his disposal, Samson instead had his men patrol the French and Belgian countryside in the privately owned cars some of them had taken to war.

In March 1915 Samson was sent to the Dardanelles with No 3 Squadron (later No 3 Wing); it was based on the island of Tenedos and, together with seaplanes from HMS Ark Royal, initially provided the only Allied air cover.

[10] Samson flew many missions himself and on 25 April at the Landing at Cape Helles, he reported that "the sea was absolutely red with blood to 50 yards out" at Sed-el-Barr ("V Beach").

[11] On 27 May, Samson attacked the German submarine U-21, which had just sunk HMS Majestic; when he ran out of bombs he resorted to firing his rifle at it.

[12] In June, a temporary airstrip was constructed at Cape Helles; Samson became well known for waving cheerily to the Allied troops in the trenches below.

Based at Port Said, he patrolled the coasts of Palestine and Syria, sending his aircraft on reconnaissance missions and bombing Turkish positions, often flying himself on operations.

After silencing Turkish guns at Perim, Ben My Chree headed to Jidda where on 15 June, her aircraft operated in support of an attack by Arab forces led by Faisal, son of Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca; Samson lost the heel of his boot as well as various pieces of his seaplane to ground fire.

Further operations off the coast of Palestine followed; on 26 July, Samson and his observer, Lieutenant Wedgewood Benn destroyed a train carrying 1,600 troops with a 16 lb bomb.

[17] His two escort ships, already equipped to carry a few seaplanes, were fitted out for independent air operations, and from Aden and later Colombo, he patrolled the Indian Ocean for enemy commerce raiders.

Samson was placed on the retired list on account of ill health in 1929 and died of heart failure at his home near Salisbury, Wiltshire, on 5 February 1931.