Colonel Sir Alfred "Toby" Rawlinson, 3rd Baronet, CMG CBE DSO (17 January 1867 – 1 June 1934) was an English soldier and intelligence officer, sportsman, pioneer motorist and aviator.

[nb 1][8] Rawlinson learned to fly in France in a Farman aircraft, essentially teaching himself after he was unable to enrol for formal lessons.

[9] In 1909 he acquired the rights for constructing Farman aircraft in the UK and subsequently resigned as managing director of the Darracq Motor Company to concentrate on this new passion.

He therefore offered himself and his Hudson sports car to the Royal Automobile Club, who were assembling an "RAC Corps of Volunteer Motor Drivers".

Rawlinson was one of twenty-five motorists selected to accompany the British Expeditionary Force to the continent to act as chauffeurs and dispatch carriers for the General Staff.

[12] He and the other drivers worked with the British Army in the first battles of the war, his car being adapted by the addition of a machine gun and flying a Union Jack.

By October, he had been transferred to a staff position with IV Corps (which was commanded by his brother) and had been given the rank of colonel by Sir John French, despite having left the cavalry as a subaltern.

[16] On 20 June 1915, Rawlinson was appointed a lieutenant-commander in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and tasked with raising a new squadron of the RNAS Armoured Car Section.

[17] In September, he was placed under the direct command of Admiral Sir Percy Scott, who had been ordered to establish the London Air Defence Area.

He set off at once for France, in the hope of obtaining an example of the lorry-mounted Autocanon de 75 mm 1913 anti-aircraft gun and returned to London with one within 72 hours.

[18] This weapon became the nucleus of the Royal Naval Anti-Aircraft Mobile Brigade, under Rawlinson's personal command; it was first used in action against a Zeppelin on 13 October at Moorgate in the City of London.

[22] Throughout this time, Rawlinson was continually refining the techniques of anti-aircraft gunnery, and claimed to have pioneered the use of acoustic location in detecting aircraft hidden by cloud.

In May 1917, Rawlinson was offered command of the newly created Western Sub-Command of the London defences, which required a transfer back to the army, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

[26] On his last assignment, to establish whether Turkey was obeying the armistice conditions, Rawlinson and his party were held prisoner in Erzurum by the Turkish authorities, placing the British Government in an awkward position, because his elder brother was a high-ranking military officer.