Major-General Robert Frederick Edward Whittaker, CB, CBE, TD, (18 June 1894 – 17 February 1967) was a City of London banker and a senior officer in Britain's part-time Territorial Army (TA).

[10] 26th AA Bde, controlling several regiments of heavy anti-aircraft (HAA) guns, was a critical part of the air defences of London.

Just before the outbreak of war, the brigade moved its headquarters to Brompton Road in South Kensington, where a Piccadilly line underground railway station had been disused since 1934.

The tunnels, subways and lift-shafts of the station were adapted to provide bomb-proof accommodation, and it became the control centre for the whole of the London Inner Artillery Zone (IAZ) under 1st AA Division.

[11][12] Whittaker commanded his brigade from this HQ during the training period of the Phoney War, through the Battle of Britain and into the early part of The Blitz.

New rocketry and radar technologies had to be introduced, and defences repositioned to meet new threats, such as the Baedeker raids, and the Luftwaffe's 'hit and run' attacks on the South Coast of England.

[18] In February 1944, after more than two years in the post, Whittaker was moved to command 2 AA Group, which was responsible for defending South East England.

At the time the group was dealing with small-scale night raids coming over the coast heading towards London (the 'Baby Blitz') and with reorganising the defences of Southern England to cover the build-up of troops, shipping and equipment for the forthcoming invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord).

[13][19][20] Shortly after the Normandy landings, the anticipated attacks by V-1 flying bombs (codenamed 'Divers') began, and the AA defences had to be reshuffled once more: guns were moved from the London IAZ and elsewhere to the South Coast to try to destroy the V-1s as they came inland (Operation Diver).