ABSTRACT

Tedder left Sydney for England on 24 October 1914, described on the Osterley’s passenger list as a ‘civil servant’ 1 travelling second class: one steerage voyage had been enough to overcome even his powerful urge to save money. At this time, he had rarely seen an aeroplane, much less considered an aviation career, and yet some instinct already convinced him that the new weapon of air power had devastating potential. The Germans, he wrote to Rosalinde, ‘have barely used their Zeppelins at all’; they might sink battleships and ‘at every port, I am wondering whether we shall hear of London and Woolwich being blown up by Zeps. I think they’re bound to make an attempt.’ Clearly, his was a mind waiting for faith: faith in an aviation doctrine as yet unformed and untaught.