Providing a Few Drops of Oil and Setting the College Flag Flying: From London to Cambridge via Washington,

During the afternoon of 6 January 1950, however, came shattering news. Alasdair Black, Toppy’s son by her first marriage, had joined the RAF in 1949 and began pilot training at Cranwell. He was killed when his Harvard dived into the ground near Coleby Hall in Lincolnshire.2 In less than a fortnight he would have turned 21. As would always be his way, Tedder grieved only in private and Toppy matched his courage.