Colonel Sir Richard Masters Gorham CBE, DFC, JP[5][6] (3 October 1917 – 8 July 2006) was a prominent Bermudian parliamentarian, businessman and philanthropist, who served as a pilot during the Second World War when he played a decisive role in the Battle of Monte Cassino, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross.

He learnt of an instruction from the Army Council that prevented commanding officers from barring officers under their command from taking any training course for which they volunteered (although his former BVE commanding officer, Major Cecil Montgomery-Moore, DFC – having transferred from the BVRC in France to the Royal Flying Corps when he had been commissioned during the First World War, and heading the Bermuda Flying School during the Second World War – must undoubtedly have approved of what Gorham intended).

The RAF also provided the aircraft and crews that worked in close support roles to the Army, notably the AOP pilots.

In Italy, while in command of B Flight of 655 Squadron, he played the decisive role in the Battle of Monte Cassino when he spotted a German division moving in half-tracked German Armoured Personnel Carriers to counter attack the British 5th Division and the Polish Corps, which were themselves attacking the German-occupied monastery.

[8] Returning to Bermuda, he found the BMA and the BVRC had been reduced to skeleton commands and the BVE and BMI disbanded in 1946, along with the Home Guard.

The BMA and BVRC would both maintain skeleton command structures till their strengths were built back up again in 1951 (they would amalgamate in 1965 into the Bermuda Regiment).

Gorham was part of the detachment sent to London for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, departing from Bermuda aboard HMS Superb on 30 April.