1. Hugh Dowding 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 Operation Sea Lion, Adolf Hitler's plan to invade Britain.
Hugh Dowding joined the Royal Flying Corps at the start of the First World War and went on to serve as a fighter pilot and then as commanding officer of No 16 Squadron.
In July 1936, Hugh Dowding was appointed chief of the newly created RAF Fighter Command.
Hugh Dowding subsequently came into conflict with proponents of the Big Wing tactic, most notably Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Douglas Bader, which along with the inadaquacies of RAF's night-time defence during the Blitz led to his eventual downfall.
In November 1940, Hugh Dowding was replaced in command against his wishes by Sholto Douglas, another Big Wing advocate.
Hugh Dowding retired from the Royal Air Force in July 1942 and was made a peer in June 1943.
Hugh Dowding's father had taught at Fettes College in Edinburgh before moving to Moffat.
Hugh Dowding was educated at St Ninian's School and Winchester College.
Hugh Dowding trained at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich before being commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Garrison Artillery on 18 August 1900.
Hugh Dowding then attended the Central Flying School, where he was awarded his wings.
Hugh Dowding transferred to No 6 Squadron in October 1914 and then, after two weeks as a staff officer in France, became a Flight Commander, first with No 9 Squadron and then with No 6 Squadron.
Hugh Dowding served from December 1914 as a general staff officer, grade 3 and was seconded.
Hugh Dowding became commanding officer of the Wireless Experimental Establishment at Brooklands in March 1915 and went on to be commanding officer of No 16 Squadron in July 1915, which was based at La Gorgue in northern France.
Years later he published an account of his time in the squadron, in which he criticises Hugh Dowding as being "too reserved and aloof from his juniors", although efficient.
Hugh Dowding transferred to the command of 9 Wing at Fienvillers in June 1916.
Hugh Dowding was sent to York as chief staff officer to the RAF's senior administrative officer in the area in April 1918.
Hugh Dowding was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George on 1 January 1919.
Hugh Dowding was given a permanent commission in the RAF on 1 August 1919 with the rank of group captain.
Hugh Dowding commanded No 16 Group from October 1919 and then No 1 Group from February 1920 where he was responsible for organising two of the annual air displays at Hendon.
Hugh Dowding was promoted to air commodore on 1 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.
Hugh Dowding was an accomplished skier, winner of the first ever National Slalom Championship, and president of the Ski Club of Great Britain from 1924 to 1925.
Hugh Dowding stood out as one of the few RAF officers not totally englamoured with bombers and who was more interested in fighters.
In May 1926 Hugh Dowding was appointed director of training at the Air Ministry.
Hugh Dowding was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1928 and promoted to air vice-marshal on 1 January 1929.
Hugh 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.
Hugh Dowding was promoted to air marshal on 1 January 1933 and advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 3 June 1933.
In July 1936 Hugh Dowding was appointed commanding officer of the newly created RAF Fighter Command, and was perhaps the one important person in Britain, and perhaps the world, who did not agree with British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's 1932 declaration that "The bomber will always get through".
Hugh Dowding conceived and oversaw the development of the "Dowding system".
In lieu of the Empire Air Training Scheme that he wanted, Hugh Dowding was forced to depend upon the Auxiliary Air Force, the RAF Volunteer Reserve and the University Air Squadrons to provide him with a reserve of trained pilots.
However despite all the efforts to give Fighter Command a reserve of pilots, Hugh Dowding complained in 1939 that he lacked sufficient reserves of properly trained pilots to face the Luftwaffe.
Hugh Dowding brought modern aircraft into service during the pre-war period, including the eight gun Spitfire and Hurricane.
Hugh Dowding is credited with having fought the Air Ministry so that fighters were equipped with bullet-proof wind shields.
At a meeting with the Air Ministry when told that bullet-proof windows were too expensive, Hugh Dowding replied: "If Chicago gangsters can have bulletproof glass in their cars I can't see any reason why my pilots cannot have the same".
Hugh Dowding was a quiet, reserved man, but was greatly admired by those who served under him.
Hugh Dowding was promoted to air chief marshal on 1 January 1937 and appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order on 23 January 1937.
At the time of his retirement in June 1939, Hugh Dowding was asked to stay on until March 1940 because of the tense international situation.
Hugh Dowding was again permitted to continue serving through the Battle of Britain, first until July and finally until November 1940.
In 1940, Hugh 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.
Hugh Dowding lacked tact when it came to dealing with politicians, and right from the onset he did not get along well with Churchill.
Just before a cabinet meeting on 15 May 1940, Hugh Dowding protested before an informal committee that consisted of Churchill; the minister of aircraft production, Lord Beaverbrook and the Air Minister Sir Archibald Sinclair that the number of fighter squadrons available to Fighter Command had been reduced from 52 to 36, and at present rate of losses in France, he would have no squadrons available within two weeks.
Hugh Dowding attended the subsequent cabinet meeting, but did not speak.
Churchill was angered by the way that Hugh Dowding's arguments had swayed the cabinet into a decision that he did not want and came to feel a grudge against Hugh Dowding.
Hugh Dowding was forced to commit more fighter squadrons close to the coast even though he knew it was highly dangerous.
An additional concern for Hugh Dowding was that the planes of Fighter Command had no dinghies or sea dye while Britain at this point lacked an air-sea rescue organisation, so that any pilot shot down over the Channel were more likely than not to be lost.
Hugh Dowding had an influential patron in the form of Lord Beaverbrook, who became fond of him, all the more so because the civil servants of the Air Ministry disliked Hugh Dowding.
In early August 1940, Hugh Dowding learned via Ultra intelligence that the Luftwaffe was preparing for Adlertag set for 13 August 1940, which was intended to be a series of aerial attacks to win command of the sky.
Hugh Dowding noted that the grim irony that the more successful Fighter Command was at shooting down Luftwaffe bombers during the day, the more likely it was that the Luftwaffe would switch over to bombing by night, a course that Fighter Command was not prepared for.
The requirement that not all of Fighter Command's planes be on the ground being fuelled and armed led Hugh Dowding to commit small groups to attack the Luftwaffe bombers and their fighter escorts in waves.
The great advantage for Fighter Command in August 1940 was that Hugh Dowding rotated his fighter squadrons to give his pilots a rest while the opposing German commanders, Albert Kesselring and Hugo Sperrle, did not.
That day, Hugh Dowding took what he called "a desperate expedient" of breaking the squadrons into A, B and C types.
Hugh Dowding noted that about a quarter of his pilots were new pilots who had just graduated from the Operational Training Units who had less than two weeks' flying experience.
That day, Hugh Dowding was having a meeting with Park, when he learned via reports from radar operators of the bomber force heading towards London.
Hugh Dowding received advance notice via Ultra intelligence of another large German raid scheduled for 15 September 1940.
Hugh Dowding often referred to his "dear fighter boys" as his "chicks": indeed his son Derek was one of them.
Hugh Dowding suggests that if Dowding had been left to follow his own path, the ultimately effective British response to night bombing would have come somewhat sooner.
Hugh Dowding himself showed that he had a good grasp of night fighter defence and was planning a defence system against night bombing in a letter he wrote some time after the Battle of Britain.
On 8 October 1940, Hugh Dowding was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
Hugh Dowding unwillingly relinquished command on 24 November 1940 and was replaced by Big Wing advocate Sholto Douglas.
Hugh Dowding was elevated to the peerage, as Baron Dowding of Bentley Priory on 2 June 1943.
Later in life, because of his belief that he was unjustly treated by the RAF, Hugh Dowding became increasingly bitter.
Hugh Dowding approved Robert Wright's book Dowding and the Battle of Britain, which argued that a conspiracy of Big Wing proponents, including Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Douglas Bader, had engineered his sacking from Fighter Command.
In 1951, Hugh Dowding laid the foundation stone of the Chapel of St George at RAF Biggin Hill, now London Biggin Hill Airport, in memory of fallen airmen.
Hugh Dowding became a vegetarian, based on his beliefs as a theosophist and spiritualist.
Hugh Dowding was a member of the Fairy Investigation Society.
Hugh Dowding died at his home in Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on 15 February 1970.
Hugh Dowding's body was cremated and his ashes were placed below the Battle of Britain Memorial Window in the Royal Air Force chapel in Westminster Abbey.
Hugh Dowding married Clarice Maud Vancourt, the daughter of an officer in the Indian Army, on 16 February 1918.
Hugh Dowding had one child from a previous marriage, Marjorie Brenda Williams and they had one child together, Derek Hugh Tremenheere.
Hugh Dowding married Muriel Whiting on 25 September 1951; they had no children.
Air Chief Marshal Lord Hugh Dowding was commander-in-chief of Fighter Command, Royal Air Force, from its formation in 1936 until November 1940.
Hugh Dowding was thus responsible for the preparation for and the conduct of the Battle of Britain.