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207 Squadron Royal Air
Force Association Memories - 60th Anniversary 1976 and later |
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207 Squadron Royal Air
Force Association Memories - 60th Anniversary 1976 and later |
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 Please contact the editor if you have any memories or material on this event. images source: 207 Sqn Archive |
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Lord
Tedder, the 2nd Baron, John Michael Tedder MA
ScD PhD discusses with Sqn Ldr Michael Perrett
OC 207 Squadron (4/77-2/79) a souvenir copy of the 'first
day cover' flown by the Squadron to commemorate the 60th
Anniversary of its formation. Lord Tedder, son of MRAF Lord Tedder of Glenquin, kindly agreed to sign a number of covers in recognition of his late father's connection with and affection for the Squadron, which he commanded as a Sqn Ldr from Feb 1920 to July 1923. |
At the RAF Club on 22.7.78 Flt Lt Elder presented a cheque for £3165 to the then CAS, Sir Michael Beetham KCB CBE DFC AFC, for the RAF Museum Appeal Fund. This was the balance of the funds realised on the first day covers flown by the Squadron on 15.11.76.
source: Raymond Glynne-Owen
On the back of the envelope there was a No.207 Squadron RAF date stamp 15th November 1976 and a sticker of a Lancaster in 1942 KM-B (44 Sqn). Inside was a card with the following text:
MARSHAL OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE LORD TEDDER OF
GLENGUIN, GCB, RA, DCL, LLD
Arthur William Tedder, a Cambridge history graduate, like so many
of his contemporaries entered The Royal Flying Corps from the
Army, in which he had been commissioned in the Dorsetshire
Regiment in 1914. He is reputed to have flown solo on his first
day of flying training and to have been posted to France with
only 15 hours air experience.
He served with distinction on the
Western Front and in Egypt and was mentioned in despatches three
times. At the end of the war he was granted an RAF permanent
commission with the rank of Squadron Leader. Tedder held a
variety of posts during the next fifteen years; he commanded 207
Squadron in Constantinople, spent a year at the Royal Naval Staff
College, Commanded No. 2 Flying Training School, worked at the
Air Ministry, joined the Imperial Defence College in 1928, was
appointed to the directing staff of the RAF Staff College in 1929
and three years later took up the post of commander of the Air
Armament School at Eastchurch. Throughout these years Tedder's
innate gift for leadership shone through.
In 1934 Tedder was appointed Director of Training, a particularly
responsible post since plans were afoot for the expansion of the
RAF. He subsequently became Air Officer Commanding, RAF Far East,
and then Director General of Research and Development at the Air
Ministry. With the rank of Air Marshal he was made Deputy to the
AOC-in-C, RAF Middle East and a year later, in 1941, was himself
appointed to that most senior post. In the following years was to
reach the height of his fame, first as Air Commander-in-Chief,
Mediterranean Air Command and then, in 1944-45, as Deputy Supreme
Commander under General Eisenhower, who had recognised and
supported his insistence on the over-riding importance of Air
Supremacy.
At the end of the war Tedder was promoted Marshall of the Royal
Air Force and was created a baron. Until 1949 he was Chief of the
Air Staff, and until 1950 was First and Senior Air Member of the
Air Council. From then until 1951 he was Chairman of the British
Joint Services Mission in Moscow, and UK representative on the
Military Committee of NATO. Following his retirement from the RAF
Lord Tedder remained active in public life, notably as a Governor
of the BBC, Chancellor of Cambridge University, and President of
Standard Triumph International Ltd. A popular leader, Lord Tedder
was always interested in the welfare of RAF personnel and their
dependants, and was a President of the Royal Air Forces
Association. Lord Tedder, one of the great British commanders of
the Second World War, died in 1967 at the age of seventy-seven.
