No account of the RAF’s success in the battle of Britain should omit mention of Henry Tizard. He was the man who led the science base research in the Thirties which produced the winning formula of a radar based air defence system.

Tizard had long been a leader in scientific research particularly applied to the air. Like that other physicist who was to play an important part, Frederick Lindeman, he had begun as a researcher in physics. He had become acquainted with his colleague Lindeman, originally from Alsace, when they had met in Berlin in 1909. After the First World War, in which both men had served at Farnborough, their paths diverged. Lindeman became Professor of Physics at Oxford University, while Tizard went off to Imperial College in London. A few years later, in the Twenties, Lindeman met Churchill and began a long cooperation with the man who was to become Prime Minister in 1940. Tizard, meanwhile, became the most influential scientist at the Air Ministry during the Thirties. It was his committee which recruited Watson Watt to develop the radar. Cooperating with Dowding, Tizard’s group was largely responsible for Fighter Command’s ability to withstand the German onslaught in the Battle of Britain. Tizard’s name should not be forgotten, and indeed he deserves his own statue for playing such an important, indeed, crucial role for preparing the RAF for the Battle.