The Dowding System
What is the "Dowding system"?
Battle of Britain
Baron Dowding Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding Hugh Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding Leilani Dowding Keith Dowding
Baron_Dowding-Barons_Dowding_(1943) Hugh_Dowding,_1st_Baron_Dowding-Inter-war_years Hugh_Dowding,_1st_Baron_Dowding-Honours_and_tributes Leilani_Dowding-Abstract Keith_Dowding-Work_on_Amartya_Sen
 Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding (1882–1970) Derek Hugh Tremenheere Dowding, 2nd Baron Dowding (1919–1992) Piers Hugh Tremenheere Dowding, 3rd Baron Dowding (b. 1948) Barons Dowding (1943). The heir presumptive is the present holder's only brother the Honourable Mark Dennis James Dowding (b. 1949)The heir presumptive's heir apparent is his only son Alexander Dowding (b. 1983) 
Dowding then joined the recently created Royal Air Force and gained experience in departments of training, supply, development, and research. On 19 August 1924, Air Commodore Dowding was made Chief Staff Officer for RAF Iraq Command. In 1929, he was promoted to Air Vice Marshal and the following year joined the Air Council. Tragedy struck in the inter-war period when Clarice, his wife of two years, died after a short illness. Left alone to bring up his son, Derek, Hugh Dowding withdrew from socialising and threw himself into his work. In 1933 Dowding was promoted to Air Marshal and was knighted. In the years prior to the Second World War, Dowding was the commanding officer of RAF Fighter Command, and was perhaps the one important person in Britain, and perhaps the world, who did not agree with British Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin's 1932 declaration that "The bomber will always get through". He conceived and oversaw the development of the ""Dowding System"". This comprised an integrated air defence system which included (i) radar (whose potential Dowding was among the first to appreciate), (ii) human observers (including the Royal Observer Corps), who filled crucial gaps in what radar was capable of detecting at the time (the early radar systems, for example, did not provide good information on the altitude of incoming German aircraft), (iii) raid plotting, and (iv) radio control of aircraft. The whole network was tied together, in many cases, by dedicated phone links buried sufficiently deep to provide protection against bombing. The network had its apex (and Dowding his own headquarters) at RAF Bentley Priory, a converted country house on the outskirts of London. The system as a whole later became known as Ground-controlled interception (GCI). Dowding also introduced modern aircraft into service during the pre-war period, including the eight-gun Spitfire and Hurricane. He is also credited with having fought the Air Ministry so that fighter planes were equipped with bullet proof wind shields. He was promoted to Air Chief Marshal in 1937. 
A statue of Dowding stands outside St Clement Danes church on the Strand, London. The inscription reads: "Air Chief Marshal Lord Dowding was commander-in-chief of Fighter Command, Royal Air Force, from its formation in 1936 until November 1940. He was thus responsible for the preparation for and the conduct of the Battle of Britain. With remarkable foresight, he ensured the equipment of his command with monoplane fighters, the Hurricane and the Spitfire. He was among the first to appreciate the vital importance of R.D.F. (radar) and an effective command and control system for his squadrons. They were ready when war came. In the preliminary stages of that war, he thoroughly trained his minimal forces and conserved them against strong political pressure to disperse and misuse them. His wise and prudent judgement and leadership helped to ensure victory against overwhelming odds and thus prevented the loss of the Battle of Britain and probably the whole war. To him, the people of Britain and of the Free World owe largely the way of life and the liberties they enjoy today." Other monuments to Dowding can be found in Station Park in Moffat, the town of his birth, and in Calverley Gardens in Tunbridge Wells where he died. There is a bust of him in the War Memorial Cloister at Winchester College. The Dowding Centre at the School of Aerospace Battle Management, formally the School of Fighter Control at RAF Boulmer is named after Dowding. A green ceramic commemorative plaque was unveiled at his former residence (1951–1967) in Darnley Drive, Southborough on 6 May 2012. Dowding Close, a residential road near the former RAF Hornchurch, is named after Dowding. Dowding Road, a former residential road for personnel based at RAF Uxbridge is named after Dowding. Dowding Way, a long stretch of road on the outskirts of Tunbridge Wells, is also named after Lord Dowding. Dowding House is one of a group of seven blocks of flats constructed by the GLC in Highgate, north London, and known collectively as Hillcrest. The 1946-built Southern Railway Battle of Britain pacific (4-6-2) locomotive 21C152 was named Lord Dowding in honour of the wartime Air Chief Marshal. 
Leilani Dowding (born 30 January 1980) is an English former "Page 3" girl, glamour model, television celebrity, and the UK representative at Miss Universe 1998. 
Dowding is fascinated by empirical measurement of freedom and rights. He has worked as part of a team led by Paul Anand, Open University, UK. They have been empirically examining Amartya Sen’s capability approach through survey data ('Capabilities and Well-Being: Operationalizing the Capabilities Framework'). This research was supported by the UK Arts and Humanities Research Board. Currently he is writing a book on the works of Amartya Sen which is expected to be published soon. Keith Dowding ‘What is Welfare and How Might it Be Measured?’ in Don Ross and Harold Kincaid eds Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Economics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 511-539.  