Eric Gandar Dower

Eric Leslie Gandar Dower (1894 – 4 October 1987) was a Scottish Unionist Party politician and businessman. Life He was educated at Brighton College, like his elder brother Leonard, and at Jesus College, Cambridge, and trained for the stage at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, touring with a number of theatre companies. Gandar Dower established Aberdeen Airport and Aberdeen Airways serving routes between Aberdeen and Edinburgh, Glasgow, Wick, Thurso, Kirkwall, and Stromness. The airline changed its name to Allied Airways (Gandar Dower) Ltd. when it started the first British/Norwegian airline route, between Newcastle and Stavanger in 1937. He served as a Flight Lieutenant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve from 1940 to 1943. Following World War II, Gandar Dower 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. He 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."