Kenneth Hubbard

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Group Captain Kenneth Gilbert Hubbard (February 26, 1920 - January 21, 2004) OBE DFC AFC, was the pilot of an RAF Valiant bomber which dropped Britain's first live megaton thermo-nuclear weapon (the H-Bomb) in the southern Pacific Ocean in 1957.

1 Early life
2 The Military
3 Later life
4 Sources and external links

[edit] Early life

Hubbard was born at Norwich, Norfolk and educated at Norwich Technical College before joining the RAF in 1940 to train as a pilot. He was commissioned in May 1941 and spent the next two years as a flying instructor. After WWII, in 1946 he married Daphne Taylor, but the marriage was dissolved seven years later.

[edit] The Military

Hubbard had assumed command of No. 49 Squadron, based at Wittering, near Peterborough in September 1956. The squadron was equipped with the Vickers Valiant bomber - the first of the RAF's V-bombers - and had been assigned the major role in Operation Grapple, the aim of which was to test the performance of thermo-nuclear weapons in the megaton range. The site chosen for the test - the largest joint service operation to be mounted since the end of the Second World War - was Malden Island, 400 miles south of Christmas Island in the South Pacific.

[edit] Later life

He retired to Blythburgh in Suffolk and gave many years service to the Air Training Corps in the county. In retirement, Hubbard kept an aviary and a brood of chickens; but his particular love was dogs, and his faithful spaniel, Crusty, had been known to all his officers and airmen. He inaugurated an annual service for animals at Holy Trinity church. He enjoyed writing, and his book, Operation Grapple, was published in 1984.