Sir Victor Goddard

Meadowgate Lodge

Chart Lane, Brasted

Westerham, Kent TN 1 6 1 LN

Tel: Westerham 64303

Dear Jill

Many thanks for your letter but I am sorry to learn that you have been put into hospital again and very much hope that the cure was swift and the rest may have done you some good.

Going through my filing system I have come across two copies of a thing which I drafted years ago for the Times. It was an addition to their obituary notice about your father’s passing. As there were two copies I am sending one also to Wendy.

I hope very much that you have been able to finish all your redecoration of the house and that you are now turning your attention more to gardening.

With love

Victor

Air Vice-Marshal F.F Inglis

It seems fitting to record that Air Vice-Marshall Inglis was the grandson of Major-General Sir John Inglis, the defender of Lucknow.

Because for the latter part of World War 11 Frank Inglis was the Head of Air Intelligence in this country, he was known and respected for his stirling qualities to all the Allied delegations and military staffs as well as the chiefs of Staff and War Cabinet. When in 1942, President Roosevelt was under pressure from his Chief of Naval Staff and others to concentrate primarily on the destruction of Japanese forces in the Pacific rather than giving major aid to the effort against Germany, Churchill sent Inglis to see Roosevelt and persuade him to the view that the German Air force was the key factor in the whole situation. Inglis stayed at the White House and in two sessions convinced Roosevelt, against his own advisors, that the British air appreciation of the German Air Power was acceptable and that the major American war potential must be directed towards the defeat of Germany first. No other war decision by America was more significant for Europe and the World than that one. It is to be attributed to the clear trustworthiness of Frank Inglis that his vital, single-handed mission was successful, and it is to be attributed to his modesty that his part in that happening seems never to have come to the notice of historians. Nor is it known, except to those who experienced his kindliness, good humour and devotion to social service, what an artist he was in human relations.