Arthur Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder

Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder (July 11 1890–June 3 1967) was a significant British Marshal of the Royal Air Force.

Arthur William Tedder, was born in Glenguin, Stirling, Scotland. He was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

Tedder joined the British Army in 1913, then transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, serving in France from 1915 to 1917 and then in Egypt from 1918 to 1919. Commissioned into the new Royal Air Force (RAF) he became director of training from 1934 to 1936. Prior to World War II he was commander RAF far eastern forces and was director general for research in the Air Ministry.

As head of the RAF Middle East Command in World War II, he commanded Allied air operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa, covering the evacuation of Crete in May 1941 and Operation Crusader in Africa. After experiencing victories and defeats supporting troops fighting General Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps, Tedder's air forces were key to the Allied victory at the Battle of El Alamein.

Promoted to Air Marshal, Tedder was involved in the planning of the Allied invasion of Sicily. When Operation Overlord -- the invasion of France -- came to be planned, Tedder was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander beneath General Eisenhower. Finding himself with little responsibility in this new role he wrested control of the air planning for D-Day from the commander of the Allied Air Expeditionary Force, Trafford Leigh-Mallory.

In the last year of the war Tedder was sent to Russia to seek assistance as the Western Front came under pressure during the Battle of the Bulge. When the unconditional surrender of the Germans came in May 1945 Tedder signed on behalf of General Eisenhower.

Knighted in 1942, Tedder was granted a peerage at the war's end. He followed Charles Portal as Chief of the Air Staff (1946–50). In 1950 he became chancellor of Cambridge University. Married twice, in his later years he contracted Parkinson's Disease and died in 1967.