Eric Gandar Dower
Encyclopedia
Eric Leslie Gandar Dower (1894 – 4 October 1987) was a Scottish
Unionist Party politician and businessman.
He was educated at Brighton College
, like his elder brother Leonard, and at Jesus College, Cambridge
, and trained for the stage at RADA
, touring with a number of theatre companies.
Gandar Dower established Aberdeen Airport
and pioneered Scottish Air Lines between Aberdeen
and Edinburgh
, Glasgow
, Wick
, Thurso
, Kirkwall
, and Stromness
, as well as the first British
/Norwegian
Air Line between Newcastle
and Stavanger
in 1937.
He served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
from 1940-43.
Following the War, he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament
for Caithness and Sutherland
at the 1945 general election
with a majority of just 6 in the tightest ever three-way marginal - just 61 votes separated him from the third-placed candidate, Liberal Party
parliamentary leader Archibald Sinclair. Sinclair had acted as Secretary of State for Air
during World War II
and could not spend much time in his constituency, Britain's northernmost mainland seat.
Gandar Dower had based his 1945 election platform on serving as a wartime MP until the end of the conflict with Japan
. His election address stated "If I am returned I shall resign when Japan is beaten and stand again at the by-election which will follow, so that you can decide whether you wish me to continue as your representative in peace", and followed this up with an eve-of-poll "special message" stating "Note - Gandar Dower, if elected, has pledged himself to resign at the end of the Japanese war and to stand again at the resultant by-election." In his victory speech at the declaration, he said "Don't regard me as a Unionist. I am a member of the National Party until the end of the Japanese war, when you will then have a chance again to put me in or out." After the war's end on 14 August 1945, Gandar Dower did not resign, but pledged to do so "later".
On 14 February 1946, Gandar Dower announced that he would shortly be resigning his seat, but later withdrew the resignation.
On 28 December 1946, Gandar Dower offered to resign in the New Year, citing the marriage of his Private Secretary as a reason, but he withdrew this resignation on 11 February, citing the "rumours and cross-rumours" in the press which had been caused by his announcement, and how they "have been damaging to the Unionist cause." On 30 June 1947, The Times reported "With the forthcoming fusion of the Caithness
and Sutherland
Conservative Associations it is certain that there will be no by-election in this constituency. Backed by the unanimous support of both associations, Mr. E.L. Gandar Dower, the Conservative MP for Caithness and Sutherland, will hold his seat probably until the next General Election."
At a 15 September 1948 meeting of his local Conservative Association, he attempted to bring matters to a head by calling on the association to renominate him as the Conservative candidate for a by-election he now intended to trigger. He was overwhelmingly defeated, with only 8 members voting for him to follow through with this course of action, and numerous members expressing their dissatisfaction. In response to this, he declared that he would be standing at the next general election as an Independent, and from 3 October 1948 he withdrew from the Conservative whip. On 12 December 1948, the Caithness and Sutherland Conservatives selected David Robertson
to replace Gandar Dower. In the event, Gandar Dower decided not to seek re-election at all, and he retired at the 1950 general election
.
Gandar Dower's brother Alan
also served as a Conservative member of parliament, while another, Kenneth
, was a leading explorer and navigator.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
Unionist Party politician and businessman.
He was educated at Brighton College
Brighton College
Brighton College is an institution divided between a Senior School known simply as Brighton College, the Prep School and the Pre-Prep School. All of these schools are co-educational independent schools in Brighton, England, sited immediately next to each another. The Senior School caters for...
, like his elder brother Leonard, and at Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College, Cambridge
Jesus College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The College was founded in 1496 on the site of a Benedictine nunnery by John Alcock, then Bishop of Ely...
, and trained for the stage at RADA
Rada
Rada is the term for "council" or "assembly"borrowed by Polish from the Low Franconian "Rad" and later passed into the Czech, Ukrainian, and Belarusian languages....
, touring with a number of theatre companies.
Gandar Dower established Aberdeen Airport
Aberdeen Airport
Aberdeen Airport is an international airport, located at Dyce, a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, approximately northwest of Aberdeen city centre. 2.76 million passengers used Aberdeen Airport in 2010, a reduction of 7.4% compared with 2009, making it the 15th busiest airport in the UK...
and pioneered Scottish Air Lines between Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Wick
Wick, Highland
Wick is an estuary town and a royal burgh in the north of the Highland council area of Scotland. Historically, it is one of two burghs within the county of Caithness, of which Wick was the county town. The town straddles the River Wick and extends along both sides of Wick Bay...
, Thurso
Thurso
-Facilities:Offices of the Highland Council are located in the town, as is the main campus of North Highland College, formerly Thurso College. This is one of several partner colleges which constitute the UHI Millennium Institute, and offers several certificate, diploma and degree courses from...
, Kirkwall
Kirkwall
Kirkwall is the biggest town and capital of Orkney, off the coast of northern mainland Scotland. The town is first mentioned in Orkneyinga saga in the year 1046 when it is recorded as the residence of Rögnvald Brusason the Earl of Orkney, who was killed by his uncle Thorfinn the Mighty...
, and Stromness
Stromness
Stromness is the second-biggest town in Orkney, Scotland. It is in the south-west of Mainland Orkney. It is also a parish, with the town of Stromness as its capital.-Etymology:...
, as well as the first British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
/Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
Air Line between Newcastle
Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle upon Tyne is a city and metropolitan borough of Tyne and Wear, in North East England. Historically a part of Northumberland, it is situated on the north bank of the River Tyne...
and Stavanger
Stavanger
Stavanger is a city and municipality in the county of Rogaland, Norway.Stavanger municipality has a population of 126,469. There are 197,852 people living in the Stavanger conurbation, making Stavanger the fourth largest city, but the third largest urban area, in Norway...
in 1937.
He served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve consists of a number of groupings of individual military reservists for the management and operation of the Royal Air Force's Air Training Corps and CCF Air Cadet formations, Volunteer Gliding Squadrons , Air Experience Flights, and also to form the...
from 1940-43.
Following the War, he was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for Caithness and Sutherland
Caithness and Sutherland (UK Parliament constituency)
Caithness and Sutherland was a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1918 to 1997. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
at the 1945 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1945
The United Kingdom general election of 1945 was a general election held on 5 July 1945, with polls in some constituencies delayed until 12 July and in Nelson and Colne until 19 July, due to local wakes weeks. The results were counted and declared on 26 July, due in part to the time it took to...
with a majority of just 6 in the tightest ever three-way marginal - just 61 votes separated him from the third-placed candidate, Liberal Party
Liberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
parliamentary leader Archibald Sinclair. Sinclair had acted as Secretary of State for Air
Secretary of State for Air
The Secretary of State for Air was a cabinet level British position. The person holding this position was in charge of the Air Ministry. It was created on 10 January 1919 to manage the Royal Air Force...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and could not spend much time in his constituency, Britain's northernmost mainland seat.
Gandar Dower had based his 1945 election platform on serving as a wartime MP until the end of the conflict with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
. His election address stated "If I am returned I shall resign when Japan is beaten and stand again at the by-election which will follow, so that you can decide whether you wish me to continue as your representative in peace", and followed this up with an eve-of-poll "special message" stating "Note - Gandar Dower, if elected, has pledged himself to resign at the end of the Japanese war and to stand again at the resultant by-election." In his victory speech at the declaration, he said "Don't regard me as a Unionist. I am a member of the National Party until the end of the Japanese war, when you will then have a chance again to put me in or out." After the war's end on 14 August 1945, Gandar Dower did not resign, but pledged to do so "later".
On 14 February 1946, Gandar Dower announced that he would shortly be resigning his seat, but later withdrew the resignation.
On 28 December 1946, Gandar Dower offered to resign in the New Year, citing the marriage of his Private Secretary as a reason, but he withdrew this resignation on 11 February, citing the "rumours and cross-rumours" in the press which had been caused by his announcement, and how they "have been damaging to the Unionist cause." On 30 June 1947, The Times reported "With the forthcoming fusion of the Caithness
Caithness
Caithness is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic local government area of Scotland. The name was used also for the earldom of Caithness and the Caithness constituency of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . Boundaries are not identical in all contexts, but the Caithness area is...
and Sutherland
Sutherland
Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...
Conservative Associations it is certain that there will be no by-election in this constituency. Backed by the unanimous support of both associations, Mr. E.L. Gandar Dower, the Conservative MP for Caithness and Sutherland, will hold his seat probably until the next General Election."
At a 15 September 1948 meeting of his local Conservative Association, he attempted to bring matters to a head by calling on the association to renominate him as the Conservative candidate for a by-election he now intended to trigger. He was overwhelmingly defeated, with only 8 members voting for him to follow through with this course of action, and numerous members expressing their dissatisfaction. In response to this, he declared that he would be standing at the next general election as an Independent, and from 3 October 1948 he withdrew from the Conservative whip. On 12 December 1948, the Caithness and Sutherland Conservatives selected David Robertson
David Robertson (UK politician)
Sir David Robertson was a British accountant, company director and politician. From a Scottish family, he represented first a constituency in London and then the Scottish highlands constituency of Caithness and Sutherland...
to replace Gandar Dower. In the event, Gandar Dower decided not to seek re-election at all, and he retired at the 1950 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1950
The 1950 United Kingdom general election was the first general election ever after a full term of a Labour government. Despite polling over one and a half million votes more than the Conservatives, the election, held on 23 February 1950 resulted in Labour receiving a slim majority of just five...
.
Gandar Dower's brother Alan
Alan Gandar Dower
Alan Vincent Gandar Dower was a British Army officer and politician. He was Conservative Member of Parliament for Stockport from 1931 to 1935, and MP for Penrith and Cockermouth from 1935 to 1950.- External links :...
also served as a Conservative member of parliament, while another, Kenneth
Kenneth Gandar-Dower
Kenneth Cecil Gandar-Dower was a leading English sportsman, aviator, explorer and author.Born at his parents' home in Regent's Park, London, Gandar-Dower was the fourth and youngest son of independently wealthy Joseph Wilson Gandar-Dower and his wife Amelia Frances Germaine...
, was a leading explorer and navigator.