Obituary: Lord Tedder

MAY I add to Tam Dalyell's perceptive obituary of Lord Tedder (24 February)? writes Lord Dainton.

I first met Tedder just after the Second World War when he was an undergraduate in the practical class in physical chemistry for which I was responsible. His quiet seriousness of purpose and his consideration for others were clearly evident. Though small of stature and mild of manner he could be tenacious in argument. I well remember making him a special day-trip from Sheffield University, where he was a lecturer during 1955-63, to visit me in Leeds. His ostensible purpose was to seek my opinion on some feature of the chemistry of halogenated free radicals, but his real intention was to display and correct an error which he believed I had made.

Rather endearingly he began by thanking me for introducing him to free radical chemistry. In another person this conversational gambit could well have been chosen to flatter and ingratiate, but I knew that from him it was an unaffected expression of genuine gratitude, for Tedder was above all else uncompromisingly honest.