Captain Kenneth Townley Dowding RFC/RAF
Pictured above is Cptn Kenneth T Dowding of 103 Sqn 1918. Kenneth Dowding was the youngest of the three Dowding brothers and their sister Hilda. The eldest was Air Chief Marshal Hugh "Stuffy" Dowding GCB GCVO CMG, 1st Baron Dowding. Hugh Dowding will always be recognised for his outstanding leadership of Fighter Command from 1936 up to and including the Battle of Britain.
The Dowding children were born in Moffat, Scotland where their father established and ran the St.Ninian's Boys Preparatory School. Kenneth Dowding was a solicitor prior to WW1 and, like his brother Hugh, was an avid skier. At the start of WW1 he enlisted in the RFC.
In 1917 Kenneth briefly commanded 42 Sqn in Italy and was later transferred back to the UK as a Flight Commander with 103 Sqn in France. His name is recorded several times in surviving records. Lt Butters comments in his operational notes that, on the 15th August 1918 during a bombing raid on Peronne, Cptn Dowding turned the whole formation round to save Dodds and Corey who were "lagging behind and being attacked by Huns."
Kenneth resumed his career in the legal profession after WW1.
In WW2 he re-enlisted in the RAF and was employed in legal duties with the rank of S/L.
Like others in the Dowding family he left very little in the way of private papers and no historian ever consulted him about his famous elder brother Hugh. That is a shame. He could have revealed much about this enigmatic genius. - The Victor of the Battle Of Britain, to whom the nation and indeed the civilised world owes so much.
Kenneth Dowding
Kenneth Dowding relaxing with a splendid dog
Kenneth Dowding with his brother Arthur who later became Vice Admiral Sir Arthur Dowding
Written by David Fell - Photos courtesy of Whiting Collection.
|
