There was also little money attached to his inheritance and the main element, Castle Bernard outside Bandon and eighteen miles south west of Cork, was derelict after being burned down by the IRA four years earlier in 1920.

The new Earl eventually received £123,000 (£4.7 million in today's terms) compensation for the damage to the family seat, which remains a ruin.

Although the British Army and the Royal Navy have always had a significant number of peers within their ranks the new Earl of Bandon was almost unique within the RAF.

Known to one and all by the familial name of "Paddy" Bandon he developed a devilish sense of humour and was involved in many scrapes with superior officers during his career.

216 Squadron RAF, he made the first non-stop flight from Khartoum to Cairo, re-filling his fuel tanks by hand from cans stored recklessly inside the aircraft’s cockpit.

[7] Promotion to squadron leader came on 1 December 1936[8] when the Earl was posted to RAF Ternhill in Shropshire as a flight commander at No 10 Flying Training School.

On 1 January 1940 he received a promotion to temporary wing commander and a short term posting to Senior Staff Officer, No.

In December 1945 the Earl became the fifth Commandant of the Royal Observer Corps,[7] taking over from the retiring Air Commodore Finlay Crerar.

The Earl assumed command of the Corps at a time when it had been officially stood down from duty and placed on a care and maintenance basis.

Although a period of stand-down had been ordered the Corps was not completely disbanded, as it was anticipated that the ROC must continue as an essential component of the UK’s future post-war air defence system.

The speed of the newly introduced jet aircraft exercised the minds of the ROC senior officers as they strived to adapt to a modern environment.

With the ROC rebuilt and back to full readiness, on 1 February 1949 Lord Bandon handed over his once more fully operational command to his successor Air Commodore Richard Jordan.

In 1953 he returned as Air Vice-Marshal The Earl of Bandon to inspect the sixth annual camp at RAF Waterbeach and address the observers as a visiting VIP guest of honour.

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.

[7] 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.

[4] In retirement the Earl discovered the pleasures of fishing, particularly in the River Bandon which was well stocked with salmon, and in shooting, snipe and woodcock found in large numbers near Castle Bernard.