relationship
with Trenchard, he had not been expecting promotion, but this sudden dismissal
was an unexpected and most serious blow. The officers of the Garrison
Artillery, with whom he had trained in the early years, had served in that
service throughout the war and had gained experience and reputation there,
while Dowding had been away playing with airplanes. So although he had
seniority in the RAF, he had none in the artillery. Luckily for him, despite
Trenchard’s animosity, there were a few highly placed RAF officers who took up the
battle on his behalf—though he didn’t make it easy, as for example in the case
of the court-martial of one of the officers under his command.
Dowding was then commanding No. 1 Group when he
received orders from the Air Ministry to bring court-martial charges against
the young officer, a fighter pilot named Sholto Douglas. A fatal accident had
occurred at the Flying Training School, which was part of Dowding’s group, and
the Court of Inquiry found that it was due to faulty maintenance of the
aircraft. Because the commanding officer of the school had been off base at the
time, the Air Ministry decided that the Chief Flying Instructor, Douglas, was
to be held responsible.
Instead of immediately convening the
court-martial, Dowding investigated the situation
himself. Quickly concluding that Douglas had done nothing wrong, he refused to
proceed with the court-martial. The Air Ministry, he said, “were being stupid.”
His stubborn stand prevailed, and the future Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Lord Douglas of Kirtleside had his career saved. (On an interesting note, when
Dowding was summarily fired after he won the Battle of Britain, it was largely
Sholto Douglas’s doing. What goes around comes around, they say, but sometimes
it comes back with reverse spin.)
Despite this perfect example of Dowding’s
stubbornness and the animosity it naturally begat in the Air Ministry, his
friends eventually prevailed on Trenchard to recognize that his stubbornness
always manifested itself as concern for those serving under him, never for his
own advantage. Furthermore, they argued, he had demonstrated a devotion to duty
and a level of competence far above the usual, and finally, with Trenchard’s
grudging acceptance, he was granted a permanent commission as Group Captain in
the Royal Air Force.
He settled down again into the comfortable life
of a peacetime officer, and at the age of thirty-six, Stuffy Dowding fell in
love. Clarice Vancourt was a gentle and caring soul, a nurse, and a cousin to
one of his brother officers. Somehow she saw in this inarticulate, reserved
officer a shared gentleness, a soul longing to care for and to be cared for,
and she managed to communicate with him in a manner beyond words. They married
soon after, had a son the first year, and in the second year she suddenly took
sick. Before anyone had time to realize how serious it was, she died. She was
with him so suddenly, coming at a time when he had begun to think that such
things were not for him, and then just as suddenly she was gone. His unmarried
sister Hilda moved in with him to take care of the child, and Stuffy buried
himself in work.
There are those for whom the life of
romance is not intended. For Dowding it had been a brief excursion into another
world. His son would grow up to be a fighter pilot under his command; his wife,
so soon lost, would return to comfort him in his worst time of need. But he
knew nothing of that as yet. He breathed a prayer of thanks for having been
briefly blessed, a sigh of regret for the necessities of his fate, and returned
to the austere life of a bachelor in His Majesty’s service.
His stubbornness never abated, for he never
recognized it as stubbornness. Unlike most of his fellows and superiors, he was
always open to new ideas; he took great pleasure in catching a glimpse of
possibilities dimly seen. But it never occurred to him to defer to those who
outranked him, simply
with Trenchard, he had not been expecting promotion, but this sudden dismissal
was an unexpected and most serious blow. The officers of the Garrison
Artillery, with whom he had trained in the early years, had served in that
service throughout the war and had gained experience and reputation there,
while Dowding had been away playing with airplanes. So although he had
seniority in the RAF, he had none in the artillery. Luckily for him, despite
Trenchard’s animosity, there were a few highly placed RAF officers who took up the
battle on his behalf—though he didn’t make it easy, as for example in the case
of the court-martial of one of the officers under his command.
Dowding was then commanding No. 1 Group when he
received orders from the Air Ministry to bring court-martial charges against
the young officer, a fighter pilot named Sholto Douglas. A fatal accident had
occurred at the Flying Training School, which was part of Dowding’s group, and
the Court of Inquiry found that it was due to faulty maintenance of the
aircraft. Because the commanding officer of the school had been off base at the
time, the Air Ministry decided that the Chief Flying Instructor, Douglas, was
to be held responsible.
Instead of immediately convening the
court-martial, Dowding investigated the situation
himself. Quickly concluding that Douglas had done nothing wrong, he refused to
proceed with the court-martial. The Air Ministry, he said, “were being stupid.”
His stubborn stand prevailed, and the future Marshal of the Royal Air Force
Lord Douglas of Kirtleside had his career saved. (On an interesting note, when
Dowding was summarily fired after he won the Battle of Britain, it was largely
Sholto Douglas’s doing. What goes around comes around, they say, but sometimes
it comes back with reverse spin.)
Despite this perfect example of Dowding’s
stubbornness and the animosity it naturally begat in the Air Ministry, his
friends eventually prevailed on Trenchard to recognize that his stubbornness
always manifested itself as concern for those serving under him, never for his
own advantage. Furthermore, they argued, he had demonstrated a devotion to duty
and a level of competence far above the usual, and finally, with Trenchard’s
grudging acceptance, he was granted a permanent commission as Group Captain in
the Royal Air Force.
He settled down again into the comfortable life
of a peacetime officer, and at the age of thirty-six, Stuffy Dowding fell in
love. Clarice Vancourt was a gentle and caring soul, a nurse, and a cousin to
one of his brother officers. Somehow she saw in this inarticulate, reserved
officer a shared gentleness, a soul longing to care for and to be cared for,
and she managed to communicate with him in a manner beyond words. They married
soon after, had a son the first year, and in the second year she suddenly took
sick. Before anyone had time to realize how serious it was, she died. She was
with him so suddenly, coming at a time when he had begun to think that such
things were not for him, and then just as suddenly she was gone. His unmarried
sister Hilda moved in with him to take care of the child, and Stuffy buried
himself in work.
There are those for whom the life of
romance is not intended. For Dowding it had been a brief excursion into another
world. His son would grow up to be a fighter pilot under his command; his wife,
so soon lost, would return to comfort him in his worst time of need. But he
knew nothing of that as yet. He breathed a prayer of thanks for having been
briefly blessed, a sigh of regret for the necessities of his fate, and returned
to the austere life of a bachelor in His Majesty’s service.
His stubbornness never abated, for he never
recognized it as stubbornness. Unlike most of his fellows and superiors, he was
always open to new ideas; he took great pleasure in catching a glimpse of
possibilities dimly seen. But it never occurred to him to defer to those who
outranked him, simply
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