Cricket

Single sheet, 8vo., a near fine copy. Signed simply 'Tedder' in the writer's usual manner, the letter is written to Geoffrey Moore, founder of the Buccaneers Cricket Club, and demonstrates the airman's keen and continuing interest in the sport. Tedder was President of Surrey County Cricket Club from 1953 to 1958. The letter regretfully declines Moore's invitation to attend the Buccaneer's annual dinner (held at Lords). Marshal of the RAF Arthur William Tedder, 1st Baron Tedder (1890-1967) was one of Britain's most distinguished air commanders. Educated at Whitgift School and Magdalene College, Cambridge, he transferred from the Dorsetshire Regiment to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916, serving in France from 1915- to 1917 and in Egypt from 1918 to 1919. He was then commissioned in to the (new) Royal Air Force where was appointed Director of Training from 1934 to 1936, after which he became Commander RAF Far Eastern Forces. During WWII he was head of RAF Middle East Command, controlling Allied air operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa, including the evacuation of Crete and the defeat of Rommel; his air power was a vital component of Montgomery's victory at El Alamein. Having been promoted to Air Marshal, Tedder then took part in the early planning for D-Day, and was subsequently appointed Deputy Supreme Commander Allied Forces Europe (the most senior such British position) immediately beneath General Eisenhower, on whose behalf he signed at the German Surrender in 1945. In 1947 he delivered the Lees Knowles lecture, afterwards published as 'Air Power in War'. Following his retirement he served as Chancellor of Cambridge University and Vice-Chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC. Founded in 1930, The Buccaneers is one of the oldest and most famous 'wandering' clubs in English cricket (a 'wandering' club has no fixed home ground but plays consistently as an 'away' team relying on the hospitality of the 'home' clubs against which it competes). The Club's history has been written twice, by Clifford Bax in 1956 and more recently by Howard Spencer. ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS SIGNED BY TEDDER ARE EXTREMELY SCARCE.