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Dowding meaning

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As Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command, ACM Dowding’s leadership was critical to victory during the Battle of Britain.

Dowding was a determined leader, which brought him into conflict with peers and superiors. He strongly argued that Fighter Command’s role was to protect Britain, and he challenged the use of the RAF’s valuable resources to protect France, famously writing to the Air Ministry in May 1940:

“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.”

During the 1930s in preparation for war, Dowding oversaw two developments which would become vital to victory during the Battle of Britain. He supported the development of fast fighter aircraft – the Spitfire and Hurricane – and provided funding for the first experimental radar (then known as RDF) stations on the coast.

At RAF Bentley Priory, ACM Dowding oversaw the development and implementation of the world’s first integrated system of a

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Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswell Tremenheere Dowding

1882 – 1970

Commander-in-Chief of Fighter Command, 1936-1940

“A difficult man, a self-opinionated man, a most determined man, and a man who knew more than anybody about all aspects of aerial warfare.”

General Frederick Pile

Air Chief Marshal Dowding is regarded as the architect of victory in the Battle of Britain.

Dowding began his military career in the artillery but in 1913 he took the opportunity to learn to fly at Brooklands and gained his RFC wings. During the First World War he commanded No 16 Squadron before taking over the Ninth (Headquarters) Wing during the Battle of the Somme. Differences of opinion with Trenchard saw him return to the United Kingdom to training duties.

After an influential spell as Air Member for Research and Development after the war he seemed a natural choice to lead Fighter Command when it was set up in July 1936. He spent the remaining years of peace preparing it for war.

Dowding had originally been told he would retire in June 1939 but his retire

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Captain H.C.T. Dowding in April 1914 at Upavon
(Image Courtesy David Whiting)

Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, GCB, GCVO, CMG, lived from 24 April 1882 to 15 February 1970. He is best remembered as the commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain. The wider picture in Scotland at the time is set out in our Historical Timeline.

Hugh Dowding was born in Moffat and began his education at St Ninian's Boys' Preparatory School in Moffat, which had been established by his father, Arthur Dowding. He later attended Winchester College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, before joining the Army with a commission in the Royal Garrison Artillery.

Dowding was an early aviation enthusiast and gained his Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Aviator's Certificate, number 711, early on the morning of 20 December 1913 in a Vickers biplane at the Vickers School of Flying, Brooklands. He then attended the Central Flying School at Upavon, where he re