Education
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.
Educated at Marlborough College and the Sandhurst, Airy was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1954. Airy became Personal Military Assistant to the Secretary of State for War in 1960, Deputy Assistant Adjutant-General and Regimental Adjutant in 1967 and Brigade Major of 4th Guards Brigade in 1971. In 1974 he transferred to the Scots Guards in 1974 on appointment as Commanding Officer of the 1st Battalion of the Scots Guards.
Two years later he became Military Assistant to the Master-General of the Ordnance.
Promoted to major-general in 1983, he served at the Royal College of Defence Studies, before becoming Major-General commanding the Household Division and General Officer Commanding London District in 1986. He retired in 1989. He was appointed Private Secretary and Treasurer to the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1990.
He remained in office for slightly under a year, and was made an Extra Equerry to the Prince of Wales in 1991. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1989 and Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1984.