Bentley Priory has about it a dreamlike quality, even though the guards on duty at the gate, wearing battle fatigues and toting the latest rapid-fire rifles, remind you that this intriguing country house, enlarged and remodelled by Sir John Soane from 1788 for John Hamilton, the first Marquis of Abercorn, and set in London' fast disappearing Green Belt, is until January 2008 a working RAF base.

In July 1936, Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding walked here from 'Montrose,' his Stanmore home, and showed his security pass to the sergeant on duty at the same guardhouse that he must have passed through when he had taken up duties as head of the newly formed RAF Fighter Command. 'Stuffy' as he was known throughout the force, chose the south-facing library as his office. It looks out, then as now, over a sculpted Italianate garden and on, across a big sky, towards Harrow-on-the-Hill, marked by the tall spire of St Mary's church. The north London suburbs, which were spreading their red-brick and pebble-dash tentacles between here and Harrow even as Dowding was making plans for the defence of the realm, are completely invisible from the tall library windows. It remains a romantic view, one that conjures up a kind of idealized England whose freedoms, traditions and eccentricities were worth fighting for in 1939 and, or course, very much still are.'

The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust

As a part of an estate rationalisation programme the Ministry of Defence has sold the Bentley Priory site within a large contract for land disposal tied to a major rebuild at RAF Northolt. The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust is a registered charity formed to ensure preservation of this pivotal part of world history when the Royal Air Force vacates the site in January 2008.

Trustees

Air Chief Marshal Sir Brian Burridge KCB CBE, Chairman

Deborah Aplin, Squadron Leader Bam Bamberger DFC*, Mr Patrick Bishop, Mr Jonathan Glancey, Mr Simon Greenish, Gareth Hird, Air Marshal Ian Macfadyen CB OBE, The Lord Rotherwick, Mr John Steel QC, Group Captain Patrick Tootal OBE DL.

Architectual Advisor - Giles Quarme BA(Hons) DIP ARCH, DIP CONS (AA) RIBA FRAS

Mr Alan Curtis OBE - Founder, on behalf of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association

The Trusts objects are:

To establish and maintain Bentley Priory, Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow as a centre for education, information, training and teaching of the history of the Battle of Britain, aerospace history, aerospace technology and its future advancement;

To use Bentley Priory as a permanent memorial to those who served in the Royal Air Force and in particular (but not exclusively) during the Battle of Britain in order to assist future generations in acknowledging and recognising the sacrifices made during the Battle of Britain to ensure freedom of Europe and the World.

The Trust was formed at the request of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association whose membership is made up of the survivors of The Few. The Association considers Bentley Priory its' spiritual home and an important reminder of the sacrifices of the many who did not survive the Battle or the remainder of the war. The Fighter Association have commemorated victory in the Battle of Britain with a dinner at Bentley Priory every year since 1946 when Lord Dowding was their guest of honour.

Fund Raising

The Trust is mandated, by those who created it, to save Bentley Priory for the Nation. Although we are still engaged in negotiating the nature of the eventual lease of the Priory, the Trust has a clear vision as to how the historic aspects of the building and its environs should be preserved and presented to the public. On the basis of our initial studies, short-term funding of some £3 million will be required by January 2008 so that enabling works and the preparation of suitable exhibits can be completed to a standard appropriate to the historical importance of the Priory.

Trustees are very grateful to the very generous donors who have enabled the Trust to undertake the considerable amount of planning work carried out to date. The generosity of individuals will be suitably recorded at Bentley Priory. It is intended to launch an appeal for funds early in 2007 with a series of high profile events and associated publicity both in the UK and in those other nations whose aircrew played such a vital role in the Battle of Britain. Major national newspapers are keen to support the Trust and concerns over the future of the Priory have already generated nationwide interest from opinion formers and the general public.

The Battle of Britain

".......the Battle of France is over. The Battle of Britain is about to begin, upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilization, upon it depends our own British life and the long continuity of our institution and our Empire."

WINSTON CHURCHILL, JUNE 18 1940
FROM HIS "FINEST HOUR" SPEECH

The Battle of Britain, so named by Winston Churchill in a speech in the dark days of June 1940, is one of the decisive battles of history. Had the battle been lost, the whole course of world history would have been changed. It was fought in the skies above Britain from July until October. Churchill aptly described the aircrew who fought in the battle as "The Few". These were 2353 young men from Great Britain, with 574 from the 19 overseas nations that fought along side the RAF in The Battle. 544 lost their lives during the battle, and nearly 800 more died before the end of the Second World War.

"I regard it as a privilege to fight for all those things that make life worth living - freedom, honour and fair play"

PILOT OFFICER WILLIAM "BILL" MILLINGTON AUSTRALIAN 79 & 249 SQUADRONS FIGHTER COMMAND

THE ROYAL OBSERVER CORPS

During World War II, the function of the Royal Observer Corps was to report all aircraft movement over land and offshore to their respective centres and from where the information was relayed to the RAF Reporting and Control Network.

The Observer Corps was one of the cornerstones of Lord Dowding’s air defence system and he said later in his despatch on the Battle of Britain: “It is important to note that at this time they (the Observer Corps) constituted the whole means of tracking enemy raids once they had crossed the coastline. Their work throughout was quite invaluable. Without it the air-raid warning systems could not have been operated and inland interceptions would rarely have been made.”

As the Air Chief Marshal in charge of the air defence of London and South-East England in 1940, Sir Keith Park was the field commander of the most critical area of the country during the Battle of Britain. Using a radar defence system and information gathered from the Observer Corps, Park carefully followed the movements of the bombers and fighters, constantly feeding information to his intercepting squadrons.

The Royal Observer Corps Banner, presented by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at a Royal Review of the Corps at RAF Bentley Priory on 25 July 1991, is lodged for safe keeping in the rotunda of College Hall, RAF Cranwell. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll was Air-Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Observer Corps and today is patron of the Royal Observer Corps Association

Norman Greig MBE

Air Chief Marshal Sir Hugh Dowding (later Lord Dowding)

"Mine was the purely defensive role of trying to stop the possibility of an invasion, and thus giving the country a breathing spell ... it was Germany's objective to win the war by invasion, and it was my job to prevent such an invasion from taking place"

AIR CHIEF MARSHAL SIR HUGH DOWDING, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF- FIGHTER COMMAND

Air Chief Marshal The Right Honourable Hugh Caswell Tremenheere Dowding, 1st Baron Dowding GCB, CMG, GCVO (24 April 1882 - 15 February 1970) was a British officer in the Royal Air Force. He was the commander of RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain.

In 1933 Dowding was promoted to Air Marshal and was knighted the following year. In the years prior to World War II he was the commanding officer of the RAF's Fighter Command and oversaw development of the 'Dowding System' -- an integrated air defence system of radar, raid plotting and radio control of aircraft. He also introduced modern aircraft into service such as the eight-gunned Hurricane and Spitfire.

Dowding was a determined and strong leader, features which sometimes brought him into conflict with his peers and superiors. He argued strongly that Fighter Command's role was to protect the UK and went against the then accepted wisdom of using the RAF's valuable resources to protect France, famously writing to the Air Ministry:

"I believe that, if an adequate fighter force is kept in this country, if the fleet remains in being, and if Home Forces are suitably organized to resist invasion, we should be able to carry on the war single-handed for some time, if not indefinitely. But, if the Home Defence Force is drained away in desperate attempts to remedy the situation in France, defeat in France will involve the final, complete and irremediable defeat of this country."

ACM HUGH DOWDING May 16, 1940

Through the summer of 1940 in the Battle of Britain Dowding's Fighter Command resisted the attacks of the Luftwaffe. Aside from the system he bequeathed to Fighter Command, his major contribution was to marshal resources behind the scenes and maintain a significant fighter reserve, while leaving his subordinate commanders' hands free to run the battle.

Dowding's Office from his time at Fighter Command is preserved and can also be recognised in the epic 1969 film of the "Battle of Britain" which starred Sir Laurence Olivier as Dowding.

From 1937 until March 1940 Dowding's operation room was in converted anteroom of the Priory until the underground bunker was opened in 1940. It was in the operations rooms that Dowding monitored the intelligence required for his vital decision making in the run up to the Battle.

Fighter Command pilots came to recognise Dowding, nicknamed "Stuffy" by his men, as a rather distant figure, but one who cared for his men and had their best interests at heart. Dowding often referred to his "dear fighter boys" as his "chicks". Indeed his son Derek was one of them: a pilot in 74 Squadron. In spite of his reserve many junior officers regarded "Stuffy" as a fatherly figure with a steady hand on the tiller.

Because of his leadership, determination, preparation and prudence "Stuffy" Dowding was credited with winning the battle and was made the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.

Dowding died at his home in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, on February 15 1970. At a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, his ashes were laid to rest below the Battle of Britain Memorial Window in the Royal Air Force Chapel.

Bentley Priory has hosted regular Royal visits as seen in the clipping above from 1958 where the Queen was celebrating 40 years of the Royal Air Force.

The House and Gardens

The original Priory, which housed a cell of Augustinian Friars, was believed to have been founded in 1170 by Ranulf de Glanville. In 1546 Henry VIII gave the Priory to private owners. In 1766 the estate was sold to James Duberly. Duberly pulled down the original Priory and in the 1770's built the present Bentley Priory to a design prepared by Sir John Soane, on the highest point on the ridge some distance from the original site.

Cockerell's 1827 sketch of Soane's plan as he found it to the East (left) with his suggestion for the West side. Plan courtesy of RIBA Drawings collection.

Bentley Priory was significantly extended in 1788, by Sir John Soane, for the first Marquis of Abercorn. It was the final home of the Dowager Queen Adelaide, widow of William IV, who occupied the Priory from April 1846 until her death there in 1849.

The estate was sold in 1882 to Frederick Gordon, of Gordon Hotels, who converted it into a private residential hotel. The hotel was not a success and in 1908 it changed hands again to become a girl's school. In 1922 the school closed and the property stood empty until in 1926 when the Priory estate was split up and one lot comprising of the Priory itself and around 40 acres was sold to the Air Ministry .

From July 1936 to April 1968 the Priory served as the HQ of Fighter Command. As well as being a well-restored Soane building, it houses many of the physical manifestations of RAF Heritage. As the place from which the Battle of Britain was masterminded, the Mess contains many remembrances of the Battle. Lord Dowding's wartime office, with its original furniture, notebooks, etc. has been retained as he left it.

Plans of Bentley Priory

Should you require further information about the work of the Trust or a visit to see Bentley Priory please contact:

Erica Ferguson
Executive Consultant
Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust
Wendleberie
Moor Common
Lane End
Buckinghamshire
HP14 3HS
UK
Tel (+44) (0) 7813856719
E-mail: bentleypriory@btinternet.com

The Bentley Priory Battle of Britain Trust's website will be launched early 2007