The Dowding & Park Tribute Spitfire, Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding ...

The Dowding & Park Tribute Spitfire

Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding

“Mine was the purely defensive role of trying to stop the possibility of an invasion, and thus giving the country a breathing spell … it was Germany’s objective to win the war by invasion, and it was my job to prevent such an invasion from taking place.”

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG.

Born 24th April 1882, died 15th February 1970, he was an officer in the Royal Air Force. He served as a fighter pilot and then as commanding officer of No. 16 Squadron during the First World War. During the inter war years he became Air Officer Commanding Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain and then joined the Air Council as Air Member for Supply and Research. He was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and is generally credited with playing a crucial role in Britain's defence, and hence, the defeat of Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Britain. He was unwillingly replaced in command in November 1940 by Big Wing advocate Sholto Douglas.

Soldier, pilot, wireless pioneer, squadron commander, spiritualist (he would often talk about meeting dead "RAF boys" in his sleep), champion skier, 'Stuffy' Dowding is perhaps best known as the creator of the first radar, then known as RDF, based air defence system and his no less remarkable management of such throughout the Battle of Britain. Dowding served in 'delightful and dangerous Iraq', helped to pacify unrest in the Holy Land, was involved in the R.101 airship disaster and oversaw the creation of Britain's first eight gun monoplanes, the Hurricane and Spitfire.Controversially dismissed from Fighter Command and refused the RAF's highest rank, he nevertheless became the first airman elevated to the peerage since Trenchard.

He was born at St. Ninian's Boys' Preparatory School in Moffat, Dumfriesshire, the son of Arthur John Caswall Dowding and Maud Caroline Dowding (née Tremenheere). His father had taught at Fettes College in Edinburgh before moving to the southern Scottish town of Moffat. Dowding was educated at St Ninian's School and Winchester College. He trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 18th August 1900.

Promoted to lieutenant on 8th May 1902, Dowding served with the Royal Garrison Artillery at Gibraltar, in Ceylon and in Hong Kong before being posted to No. 7 Mountain Artillery Battery in India in 1904. After returning to the United Kingdom, he attended the Army Staff College 1912 before being promoted to captain on 18th August 1913 and being posted with the Royal Garrison Artillery on the Isle of Wight later that year. After becoming interested in aviation, Dowding gained Aviator's Certificate no. 711 on 19th December 1913 in a Vickers biplane at the Vickers School of Flying, Brooklands. He then attended the Central Flying School, where he was awarded his wings. Although added to the Reserve List of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), Dowding returned to the Isle of Wight to resume his Royal Garrison Artillery duties. However, this arrangement was short lived and in August 1914, he joined the RFC as a pilot on No. 7 Squadron.

In 1915 he clashed with General Hugh Trenchard, the commander of the RFC, over the need to rest pilots exhausted by non-stop duty.

Dowding was given a permanent commission in the RAF on 1st August 1919 with the rank of group captain. He commanded No. 16 Group from October 1919 and then No. 1 Group from February 1920. He was promoted to air commodore on 1st January 1922, and served as chief staff officer at Inland Area headquarters at Uxbridge from February 1922 before being appointed Chief Staff Officer for RAF Iraq Command in August 1924.

He was also an accomplished skier, and winner of the first ever National Slalom Championship, and president of the Ski Club of Great Britain from 1924 to 1925.

In May 1926 he was appointed director of training at the Air Ministry. Lord Trenchard sent him to Palestine and Transjordan to study security problems caused by Arab/Jewish unrest: his reports, which gained Trenchard's approval, were a cause of further career advancement. Dowding became Air Officer Commanding Fighting Area, Air Defence of Great Britain in December 1929 and then joined the Air Council as Air Member for Supply and Research in September 1930. One of his first responsibilities in this post was the approval of the granting of a certificate of airworthiness to the R101 airship shortly before it set off on its ill fated voyage to India.

In July 1936 Dowding was appointed commanding officer of the newly created RAF Fighter Command, and was perhaps the one important person in Britain, and very possibly the world, who did not agree with British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's 1932 declaration that "The bomber will always get through" .He conceived and oversaw the development of the "Dowding system". This consisted of an integrated air defence system which included (i) radar, (ii) human observers (including the Royal Observer Corps), (iii) raid plotting, and (iv) radio control of aircraft. The whole network was linked in many cases by dedicated telephone cables buried sufficiently deeply to provide protection against bombing. The network had its centre at RAF Bentley Priory, a converted country house on the outskirts of London. The system as a whole later became known as Ground controlled interception (GCI).

Dowding also introduced modern aircraft into service during the pre war period, including the eight gun Spitfire and Hurricane. He is also credited with having fought the Air Ministry so that fighter planes were equipped with bullet proof wind shields. He was promoted to air chief marshal on 1st January 1937.

Due to retire in June 1939, he was asked to stay on until November 1940. In 1940, Dowding, nicknamed "Stuffy" by his men for his alleged lack of humour, proved unwilling to sacrifice aircraft and pilots in the attempt to aid Allied troops during the Battle of France.

“I believe that, if an adequate fighter force is kept in this country, if the fleet remains in being, and if Home Forces are suitably organized to resist invasion, we should be able to carry on the war single handed for some time, if not indefinitely. But, if the Home Defence Force is drained away in desperate attempts to remedy the situation in France, defeat in France will involve the final, complete and irremediable defeat of this country.”

He, along with his immediate superior Sir Cyril Newall, then Chief of the Air Staff, resisted repeated requests from Winston Churchill to weaken the home defence by sending precious squadrons to France. When the Allied resistance in France collapsed, he worked closely with Air Vice-Marshal Keith Park, the commander of 11 Fighter Group, in organising cover for the evacuation of the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk.

Through the summer and autumn of 1940 in the Battle of Britain, Dowding's Fighter Command resisted the attacks of the Luftwaffe. Beyond the critical importance of the overall system of integrated air defence which he had developed for Fighter Command, his major contribution was to marshal resources behind the scenes (including replacement aircraft and aircrew) and to maintain a significant fighter reserve, while leaving his subordinate commanders' hands largely free to run the battle in detail.

Dowding was known for his humility and great sincerity. Fighter Command pilots came to characterise Dowding as "The one who cared for his men, and had their best interests at heart".

He often referred to his "dear fighter boys" : indeed his son Derek was one of them. Because of his brilliant detailed preparation of Britain's air defences for the German assault, and his prudent management of his resources during the battle, Dowding is today generally given the credit for Britain's victory in the Battle of Britain.

Dowding's subsequent downfall has been attributed by some to his single mindedness and perceived lack of diplomacy and political savoir faire in dealing with intra-RAF challenges and intrigues, most obviously the still even now hotly debated Big Wing controversy in which a number of senior and active service officers had argued in favour of large set piece air battles with the Luftwaffe as an alternative to Dowding's successful Fabian strategy. Another reason often cited for his removal, was the difficulty of countering German night bombing raids on British cities.

There was great political and public pressure during the Blitz for something to be done, and Fighter Command's existing resources without, as yet, airborne radar, proved woefully inadequate. A committee of enquiry produced a long list of recommendations to improve night air defence; when Dowding approved only some of them, his erstwhile supporters, Lord Beaverbrook and Churchill, decided that it was time for him to step down.

He unwillingly relinquished command on 24th November 1940 and was replaced by Big Wing advocate Sholto Douglas. Churchill tried to soften the blow by putting him in charge of the British Air Mission to the USA, responsible for the procurement of new aircraft types, but there he made himself unpopular with his outspokenness. On his return to England he headed a study into economies of RAF manpower before retiring from the Royal Air Force in July 1942.

Later in life, because of his belief that he was unjustly treated by the RAF, he became increasingly bitter. He thought Big Wing proponents, including Trafford Leigh Mallory and Douglas Bader, had engineered his sacking from Fighter Command. In the wake of the debate that followed, the RAF passed him over for promotion to Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Dowding died at his home in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 15th February 1970, aged 87. Following his cremation, his ashes were laid to rest below the Battle of Britain Memorial Window in the Royal Air Force chapel at Westminster Abbey.

Westminster Abbey was packed for his memorial service in March 1970 with more than 46 air marshals in attendance; and in 1988 HM the Queen Mother unveiled a statue in his honour.

It may be a bizarre explanation for his position during one of the turning points of World War II and Dowding may not have been the most charismatic leader, but thanks in no small part to this strange man, our darkest hour became our finest.