ABSTRACT
During October 1931, Tedder learned that in January he was to take command of the Armament and Gunnery School at Eastchurch on the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames estuary. More than 30 years later, he began his memoirs with a brief account of his work there: ‘fathering air armament’, he wrote, was ‘one of the most interesting periods in my service’.1 Air Marshal Joubert de la Ferté had assured him that one of the perks of service as an instructor at the staff college was ‘a free choice (within reason) as to where he would wish to go and what job he would like to undertake’ on leaving Andover. An instructor who had also been deputy commandant would surely be given a plum posting. Tedder replied that he preferred to leave the matter in the hands of the ‘personnel authorities’, except that he asked not to be sent to another training unit – so of course they sent him to another training unit.
