Ralph Sleigh Booth AFC became one of the all-time greats in the airship world and was First Officer on HMA 24r. By 1915 he had moved across to the airship division of the RNAS and captained a range of non-rigids. He was captain on board the breakaway R33 airship and went on to captain the R100 on its ground-breaking crossing to Montreal Canada in August 1930.
The following obituary for Ralph Sleigh Booth is taken from The Flight magazine dated 25.09.1969 .
One of the best-known men in British airship history, Wg Cdr R. S. Booth, died on September 12th at the age of 74. Air Marshal Sir Victor Goddard, who knew him well, writes:—
“When the submarine menace loomed in 1915, the Admiralty directed Jellicoe to send midshipmen from the Grand Fleet to become captains of non-existent submarine searcher airships. Ralph Booth, aged 20, was the senior of the batch who, with blueprints, wire and fabric, rigged aeroplane fuselages to gas envelopes, made a fleet of 30 S.S. airships and flew them all within as many weeks. Booths was S.S.I. That autumn she was destroyed by fire when landing in fog.
By the end of the war Booth had become captain of the R.24 and one of the first in the Air Force to win the AFC. As captain of the R.33 in 1921 he pioneered “mast mooring” and, when his ship was torn by storm from the tower at Pulham, he and a skeleton crew, after a three-day struggle with fabric and storm, brought her back; he was honoured by George V and promoted squadron leader.
Booth was the natural choice for command of R.100. He flew her to Montreal and back in 1930—a flight and a ship which marked the zenith of British airship achievement, soon to be terminated by the R.101 disaster.
Booth, already qualified as an aeroplane pilot in 1926, was “grounded” by deafness in 1932. The RAF then lost a potential high commander of outstanding quality. Relegated to the development of navigational instruments, Wg Cdr Booth exercised an influence both profound and unsung. Soon after World War Two he retired into civil voluntary public service, punctuated with occasional advisory excursions into airship and balloon ventures, until death overtook him on September 12.
Ralph Booth was probably the most admired and respected member of the Airship Service of the RNAS/RAF. The qualities which shone through his quietness in the air, in the field of sport and in all his work and relationships never failed.”