Robert Wright (1906–1992) was a

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human species; as well as the ...

and

biographer Biographers are authors who write an account of another person's life, while autobiographers are authors who write their own biography. Biographers Countries of working life: Ab=Arabia, AG=Ancient Greece, Al=Australia, Am=Armenian, AR=Ancient Rome ...

Hugh Dowding Air Chief Marshal Hugh Caswall Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding, (24 April 1882 – 15 February 1970) was a senior officer in the Royal Air Force. He was Air Officer Commanding RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain and is gene ...

, the RAF's commanding officer in the

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain () was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended the United Kingdom (UK) against large-scale attacks by Nazi Germany's air force ...

. Wright served as Dowding's personal assistant during the Battle. In his book ''Dowding and the Battle of Britain'' (1969) Wright was one of the early proponents of the

Big Wing The Big Wing, also known as a Balbo, was an air fighting tactic proposed during the Battle of Britain by 12 Group commander Air Vice-Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and Acting Squadron Leader Douglas Bader. In essence, the tactic involved mee ...

conspiracy theory that blamed

Trafford Leigh-Mallory Air Chief Marshal Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory, (11 July 1892 – 14 November 1944) was a senior commander in the Royal Air Force. Leigh-Mallory served as a Royal Flying Corps pilot and squadron commander during the First World War. Remaining in th ...

and the British Air Ministry for Dowding's removal from command at the end of the battle. Many of Wright's claims, some based on Dowding's faulty recollections, have been repudiated by witnesses and documentary evidence, but his allegations have proven popular and persistent over the years. In November 1944, whilst serving as radar operator on No. 85 Squadron RAF, the Mosquito he was in crashed. The pilot died, but Wright survived and was taken to

RAF Hospital Ely RAF Hospital Ely (also known as RAF Ely and RAFH Ely), was a Royal Air Force staffed RAF Hospital, military hospital in Ely, Cambridgeshire, Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. The hospital opened in 1940, and was one of a handful of Second World War ...

. Prior to becoming a champion of Dowding, Wright co-wrote the biography of Dowding's rival and replacement at Fighter Command, Sholto Douglas in two volumes titled: ''Years of Combat'' and ''Years of Command'' (1966).

References

1906 births 1992 deaths 20th-century British historians Members of the Guinea Pig Club {{UK-historian-stub