Tedder, First Baron

(Arthur William Tedder). Born July 11, 1890, in Glenguin, Scotland; died June 3, 1967, in Surrey, England. British air marshal (1945). Baron (1946).

Tedder graduated from Cambridge University in 1912 and joined the army in 1913. He served in World War I (1914–18), becoming an aviator in 1916. He graduated from the Royal Naval Staff College in 1924 and the Imperial Defense College in 1928. In the 1930’s, Tedder served in the Air Ministry and commanded the Royal Air Force in the Far East. At the beginning of World War II (1939–45), he was director of research and development for the Air Ministry, and from 1940 to 1943 he was deputy commander and commander in chief of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East and the Mediterranean. From 1943 to 1945 he was deputy commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force. Under the leadership of the American general D. Eisenhower, Tedder helped plan and execute the Normandy invasion of 1944 and other military operations of the Anglo-American forces. From 1946 to 1950 he was chief of staff of the Royal Air Force. In 1950–51, Tedder was a member of the Military Committee of NATO and chairman of the British Joint Services Mission in Washington, D.C.