Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

First World War

Second World War

Awards
Standard Triumph Ltd
Deputy President, National Rifle Association

First World War and he went on to serve as a senior officer in the Royal Air Force
during the inter-war years when he served in Turkey, Great Britain and the Far East.

During the

Tedder Carpet". Later in the war Tedder took command of Mediterranean Air Command and in that role was closely involved in the planning of the Allied invasion of Sicily and then the Allied invasion of Italy. When Operation Overlord—the invasion of France—came to be planned, Tedder was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force under General Eisenhower
.

After the war, Tedder served as Chief of the Air Staff, in which role he advocated increased recruiting in the face of many airmen leaving the service, doubled the size of RAF Fighter Command and implemented arrangements for the Berlin Airlift in 1948. He also held senior positions in business and academia.

Early life

Tedder was born the son of Sir Arthur John Tedder and Emily Charlotte Tedder (née Bryson) at the Glenguin Distillery (now

Shetland Isles and 1899–1901 in Elgin, in the County of Moray.[1] In 1902 the family moved to Croydon in Surrey where Tedder attended Whitgift School until 1909, when he went up to the University of Cambridge.[1] Tedder spent his university years (1909–13) at Magdalene College, where he read history.[1] He was awarded a lower second class honours degree in June 1912.[1]

Tedder spent the summer of 1912 in

Dorsetshire Regiment.[2]

After university, Tedder joined the

war was declared, he returned to Britain so that he could join the regular Army.[1]

Military career

First World War

Tedder was promoted to lieutenant in the Dorset Regiment on 14 October 1914,[4] and arrived back in Britain in December.[1] He was posted to a reserve unit at Wyke Regis on the Dorset coast where he seriously injured his knee in February.[1] Following his injury Tedder was unable to carry out full infantry service and, although he briefly carried out duties at a base camp in Calais,[1] he pressed for a transfer to the Royal Flying Corps (RFC).[3]

In January 1916, Tedder was accepted into the RFC and he was asked to attend the

No. 25 Squadron RFC flying the Bristol Scout C on the Western Front.[1] On 9 August 1916, Tedder was given additional responsibilities as he was made a flight commander[6] with 25 Squadron.[1] The first day of 1917 saw Tedder promoted to major[7] and appointed officer commanding No. 70 Squadron RFC.[2] Tedder remained on the Western Front and his new squadron was equipped with the Sopwith 1½ Strutter.[2] He was awarded the Italian Silver Medal for Military Valour on 26 May 1917.[8]

Tedder was appointed officer commanding

38th Wing, also based in Egypt.[2] He was promoted to the temporary rank of lieutenant colonel on 23 July 1918[9] (rank relinquished on 2 April 1919).[10]

Inter-war years

Tedder was given command of No. 274 Squadron, equipped with the

RN Staff College in late 1923 and through the spring of 1924.[2]

Promoted to

Imperial Defence College in 1928 and then became Assistant Commandant at the RAF Staff College in January 1929.[2] Promoted to group captain on 1 January 1931,[2] he went to the Air Armament School at RAF Eastchurch as officer commanding in January 1932.[2] On 4 April 1934 he became Director of Training at the Air Ministry,[13] gaining promotion to air commodore on 1 July 1934.[14]

In November 1936, Tedder was appointed

air vice marshal on 1 July 1937[16] and became Director General for Research in the Air Ministry in July 1938.[2]

Second World War

Tedder sitting at his desk at Air House, his official residence in Cairo, while serving as Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Middle East Forces.

At the outbreak of war in 1939, Tedder's department was transferred to the newly created

Prime Minister Churchill and on 29 November 1940, he became Deputy Air Officer Commanding in Chief, RAF Middle East Command[2] with the acting rank of air marshal.[17] Shortly thereafter, Tedder was ordered by Churchill to resurrect the Takoradi air route.[18]

Tedder was appointed as Air Officer Commanding in Chief, RAF Middle East Command on 1 June 1941,

mentioned in despatches for his services in the Middle East on 30 June 1942[22] and promoted to the temporary rank of air chief marshal on 3 July 1942.[23]

A convalescent Winston Churchill meets the outgoing and incoming Supreme Commanders in the Mediterranean, Dwight D. Eisenhower, to Churchill's right, and Henry Maitland Wilson, to his left. Behind them stand (from left to right), John Whiteley, Air Marshal Arthur Tedder, Brigadier G. S. Thompson, Admiral Sir John Cunningham, unknown, Sir Harold Alexander, Captain M. L. Power, Humfrey Gale, Leslie Hollis, and Eisenhower's chief of staff, Walter Bedell Smith.

Tedder oversaw the buildup of the air arm in the

Tedder Carpet".[25] He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 27 November 1942 in recognition of his services in the Middle East.[26]

In February 1943 Tedder took command of Mediterranean Air Command,[2] serving under U.S. General Dwight D. Eisenhower (the theatre commander), and in that role was closely involved in the planning of the Allied invasion of Sicily and then the Allied invasion of Italy.[27] He was awarded the American Legion of Merit on 27 August 1943[28] and awarded the Grand Cross of the Polish Order of Polonia Restituta on 1 October 1943.[29] He went on to be Commander of Mediterranean Allied Air Forces, which took in an expanded group of air forces, in December 1943.[2]

When

unconditional surrender of the Germans came in May 1945 Tedder signed on behalf of General Eisenhower.[27] He was promoted to the substantive rank of air chief marshal on 6 June 1945.[30] Tedder was awarded the Soviet Order of Kutuzov (1st Class) on 28 August 1945[31] and promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 12 September 1945.[32]

  • Supreme Command, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), London, 1 February 1944, Tedder sits to the right of Eisenhower as Deputy supreme commander
    Supreme Command, Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF), London, 1 February 1944, Tedder sits to the right of Eisenhower as Deputy supreme commander
  • Arthur Tedder (centre) at the ceremony of the German unconditional surrender (May 1945). Standing is Soviet Marshal Zhukov reading the act of the surrender.
    Arthur Tedder (centre) at the ceremony of the
    Zhukov
    reading the act of the surrender.

After the war

Tedder took over from

Royal Commission on University Education in Dundee which ultimately led to the creation of the Queen's College, Dundee as a college of the University of St Andrews.[37] His son John would later be a professor at both the University of Dundee (as Queen's College eventually became) and at St Andrews.[37]

Later life

Tedder was the author of a highly regarded essay on the history of the

Chancellor of the University of Cambridge.[1] He also served as Chairman of the Standard Motor Company from 1954 to 1960[38] and vice-chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC.[1] In his later years he developed Parkinson's disease and died at his home at Banstead in Surrey on 3 June 1967.[1]

His ashes are buried in St Clement Danes in London, the RAF church. His name can be seen on a memorial in Westminster Abbey.[39]

Family life

In 1915 Tedder married Rosalinde Maclardy; they had two sons and a daughter.

University of St. Andrews), Richard (Professor of Virology at UCL) and Mena.[1]

Arms

Coat of arms of Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder
Crest
Issuant from an astral crown Or a lion sejant guardant Sable armed and langued Or holding in the sinister forepaw a sword enflamed as in the arms.
Escutcheon
Sable a sword enflamed palewise all Proper in chief an eagle affrontee volant head to sinister Or.
Supporters
Two representations of the God Horus all Proper.
Motto
For Freedom[40]

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/36446. Retrieved 22 July 2012. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x "Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Tedder". Air of Authority: A History of RAF Organisation. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  3. ^ a b Probert, p. 36
  4. ^ "No. 29277". The London Gazette. 27 August 1915. p. 8538.
  5. ^ "No. 29566". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 May 1916. p. 4433.
  6. ^ "No. 29722". The London Gazette (Supplement). 22 August 1916. p. 8380.
  7. ^ "No. 29969". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 March 1917. p. 2207.
  8. ^ "No. 30096". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 May 1917. p. 5201.
  9. ^ "No. 31201". The London Gazette. 25 February 1919. p. 2739.
  10. ^ "No. 31293". The London Gazette. 15 April 1919. p. 4887.
  11. ^ "No. 31486". The London Gazette. 1 August 1919. p. 9865.
  12. ^ The National Archives AIR 8/59
  13. ^ "No. 34040". The London Gazette. 10 April 1934. p. 2319.
  14. ^ "No. 34066". The London Gazette. 3 July 1934. p. 4233.
  15. ^ "No. 34365". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 January 1937. p. 691.
  16. ^ "No. 34414". The London Gazette. 2 July 1937. p. 4253.
  17. ^ "No. 35019". The London Gazette. 20 December 1940. p. 7126.
  18. ^ Brady, Matthew (June 2012). “WAR PLAN JUAN” The Strategy of Juan Trippe and Pan Am in Latin America and Africa Before and During World War II (PDF). SCHOOL OF ADVANCED AIR AND SPACE STUDIES AIR UNIVERSITY MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, ALABAMA. pp. 81–82. Retrieved 30 January 2024.
  19. ^ "No. 35183". The London Gazette. 6 June 1941. p. 3230.
  20. ^ "No. 35525". The London Gazette. 14 April 1942. p. 1648.
  21. ^ "No. 35399". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1942. p. 3.
  22. ^ "No. 35611". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 June 1942. p. 2857.
  23. ^ "No. 35618". The London Gazette. 3 July 1942. p. 2924.
  24. ^ Probert, p. 37
  25. ^ "Bomber tactics". Century of Flight. Archived from the original on 13 March 2019. Retrieved 22 July 2012.
  26. ^ "No. 35801". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 November 1942. p. 5149.
  27. ^ a b c d Probert, p. 38
  28. ^ "No. 36148". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 August 1943. p. 3825.
  29. ^ "No. 36192". The London Gazette (Supplement). 28 September 1943. p. 4358.
  30. ^ "No. 37124". The London Gazette (Supplement). 8 June 1945. p. 3073.
  31. ^ "No. 37242". The London Gazette (Supplement). 24 August 1945. p. 4342.
  32. ^ "No. 37261". The London Gazette. 11 September 1945. p. 4532.
  33. ^ Probert, p. 39
  34. ^ "No. 37461". The London Gazette. 8 February 1946. p. 864.
  35. ^ "No. 37610". The London Gazette (Supplement). 11 June 1946. p. 3007.
  36. ^ Tedder (1947)
  37. ^ a b "Papers of Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Tedder, First Baron Tedder, GCB, Chairman of the Royal Commission on University Education in Dundee". Archive Services Online Catalogue. University of Dundee. Retrieved 6 June 2019.
  38. ^ Marshal of the R A F Lord Tedder. The Times, Monday, 5 Jun 1967; pg. 10; Issue 56959
  39. ^ "Arthur, Baron Tedder". Westminster Abbey. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
  40. ^ Debrett's Peerage. 2019. p. 4559.

Sources

Further reading

  • Obituary: Lord Tedder – A Man of Destiny. RAF Quarterly No. 7 (Autumn 1967) pp. 193–195.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder.
Military offices
Preceded by OC No. 2 Flying Training School RAF
1924–1926 		Succeeded by
J H Herring
AOC RAF Far East
1936–1938 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Air C-in-C Middle East Command
1941–1943 		Succeeded by
New title
Command established
 Air C-in-C Mediterranean Air Command
February – December 1943 		Command disestablished
Merged with North-West African Air Forces
to form Mediterranean Allied Air Forces
New title
Merger of Mediterranean Air Command
and North-West African Air Forces
 Air C-in-C Mediterranean Allied Air Forces
1943–1944 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Chief of the Air Staff
1946–1950
Preceded by Chief of the British Joint Staff Mission to Washington
1950–1952 		Succeeded by
Academic offices
Preceded by
Chancellor of the University of Cambridge

1950–1967 		Succeeded by
The Lord Adrian
Peerage of the United Kingdom
New creation Baron Tedder
1946–1967 		Succeeded by
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