"Let them eat cake" (an Engineers war) W. D. R. Dowding, RAF

People in story: William Derek Robson Dowding, RAF
Location of story: Newcastle, Leamington, Gloucester
Background to story: Royal Air Force /Aircraft Industry
Written by Adrian Dowding

William Derek Robson Dowding, known as Bill Dowding 1921-2003

I write this account of my late Fathers war and the way in which it changed his life from fragments of remembered conversations we had over the years.

Born in Ashinton county Durham in 1921 the only son of the second marriage of William Dowding to Agnes Robson. After attending Atkinson technical in Newcastle he worked briefly for Royal Dutch Shell. He then became an apprentice in the firm of Bile’s, a heating and ventilating Engineers in Newcastle.

On the outbreak of WWII he joined the RAF, however as his sight was found not be as good as required he was not suitable for aircrew duties. He was put in the RAF regiment and commenced basic training. During this training these young men were launched into some exercises in which some hardened Scottish troupes were their opponents.
After having their positions overrun by these Scots several times only to be repositioned for it to happen again my Father’s comment was-“ If the Germans were only half as scared of them as we were then they could win the war for us.”

A call went out for men in the RAF regiment who had an engineering background to come forward it being rumoured that this was for some airbase building in Africa. As my Father was not enjoying the RAF regiment he felt that this might be a better way to use his engineering skills for the war effort.

After applying and completing some tests he was told that the aircraft industry wanted to acquire able engineers from the RAF on secondment. The country needed people to develop and modify aircraft as well to have the brave souls to crew them.

So began my Father’s time in the aircraft industry initially at Armstrong Whitworth near Leamington. Here amongst other work he designed drop tanks and assisted in the design of mechanical modifications for the fitment of Radar installations in various front line aircraft. I believe he also had some contact with the Radar research people at Malvern.

During a trip to an active airfield to check some Radar installations he and a colleague were invited into the mess to eat. In the mess there was a large fruitcake, one of my Father’s favourite things. The cake was not normally available to the public due to strict rationing.
My Father’s colleague ate the fruitcake with glee and went back for more but Dad declined the cake and just had a sandwich. He knew the heavy price that the merchant seaman paid to get the precious fruit for the cake to our shores, also that the real aircrew eating the cake might have been doing so as part of their last meal.

He spent the rest of the war on permanent secondment ending up at Bentham near Cheltenham. It was then he meet my Mother Jean Hawker, who at that time working at the War Office in Cheltenham.

Once demobbed he continued for the rest of his working life in the Gloucester Aircraft Company, then in Vickers Armstrong’s later BAC at Weybridge Surrey.
His work was mostly in the Flight Test/Drawing office area on such planes as Gloucester Meteor, Javelin, BAC VC10, BAC 111, Tornado, and Concorde.

Strange to say my Grandmother Agnes had worked in aircraft factory during the WWI so history was repeated.

Dad never forgot those who had paid the ultimate price nor the twist of fate that changed his life.
Neither did he forget the few brave post war test pilots who lost their lives during the development of the new aircraft such as the Gloucester Javelin.

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