During World War II, as Air Officer Commanding of the RAF Middle East Command, Tedder directed RAF air operations in the Mediterranean and North Africa, including the evacuation of Crete and Operation Crusader in North Africa.

[1] In 1902 the family moved to Croydon in Surrey where Tedder attended Whitgift School until 1909, when he went up to the University of Cambridge.

[2] After university, Tedder joined the Colonial Service as a cadet and departed Britain in February 1914, serving in the administration in Fiji.

[3] He did not find colonial life in Fiji to his liking, and when war was declared, he returned to Britain so that he could join the regular Army.

67 Squadron at RFC Shawbury on 25 June 1917[2] and became commander of the School of Navigation and Bomb Dropping in Egypt the following year.

[2] At the outbreak of war in 1939, Tedder's department was transferred to the newly created Ministry of Aircraft Production, but Tedder was unable to form a good working relationship with the minister, Lord Beaverbrook and consequently with Prime Minister Churchill and on 29 November 1940, he became Deputy Air Officer Commanding in Chief, RAF Middle East Command[2] with the acting rank of air marshal.

[1] Tedder was advanced to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath in the 1942 New Year Honours,[21] mentioned in despatches for his services in the Middle East on 30 June 1942[22] and promoted to the temporary rank of air chief marshal on 3 July 1942.

[23] Tedder oversaw the buildup of the air arm in the Western Desert and, more importantly, the development of new more effective operational and administrative policies which turned it into a highly effective force which was key to the Allied victory at the decisive Battle of El Alamein in October 1942.

[25] He was advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 27 November 1942 in recognition of his services in the Middle East.

[2] When Operation Overlord—the invasion of France—came to be planned, Tedder was appointed Deputy Supreme Commander at SHAEF beneath General Eisenhower, taking up the role in January 1944.

[27] In the last year of the war, Tedder was sent to the Soviet Union to seek assistance as the Western Front came under pressure during the Battle of the Bulge.

[30] Tedder was awarded the Soviet Order of Kutuzov (1st Class) on 28 August 1945[31] and promoted to Marshal of the Royal Air Force on 12 September 1945.

[2] In that role he advocated increased recruiting in the face of many airmen leaving the service, doubled the size of Fighter Command and implemented arrangements for the Berlin Airlift in 1948.

[33] He was granted a peerage as Baron Tedder, of Glenguin in the County of Stirling on 8 February 1946[34] and received the American Distinguished Service Medal on 14 June 1946.

[37] His son John would later be a professor at both the University of Dundee (as Queen's College eventually became) and at St Andrews.

[37] Tedder was the author of a highly regarded essay on the history of the Royal Navy and also composed his war memoirs.

[1] Following the death of his first wife in an aircraft crash in Egypt in January 1943, Tedder married Marie (Toppy) Black (née Seton) in October 1943.