page_title: Douglas Bader
section_title: Tributes
hierarchical_section_title: Douglas Bader / Postwar / Tributes
caption_attribution_description: The RAF Charitable Trust's headquarters building at Horcott Hill, Fairford.
context_page_description: Group Captain Sir Douglas Robert Steuart Bader, CBE, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, DL, FRAeS was a Royal Air Force flying ace during the Second World War. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged.
  Bader joined the RAF in 1928, and was commissioned in 1930. In December 1931, while attempting some aerobatics, he crashed and lost both his legs. Having been on the brink of death, he recovered, retook flight training, passed his check flights and then requested reactivation as a pilot. Although there were no regulations applicable to his situation, he was retired against his will on medical grounds.
  After the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, however, Douglas Bader returned to the RAF and was accepted as a pilot. He scored his first victories over Dunkirk during the Battle of France in 1940. He then took part in the Battle of Britain and became a friend and supporter of Air Vice Marshal Trafford Leigh-Mallory and his "Big Wing" experiments.
  In August 1941, Bader baled out over German-occupied France and was captured.
context_section_description: A biography about Douglas Bader by Paul Brickhill, Reach for the Sky, was published in 1954. Some 172,000 copies were sold in the first few months alone. The initial print run of 300,000 quickly sold out, as the biography became the biggest-selling hardback in postwar Britain. Brickhill had originally offered Bader fifty per cent of all proceeds, sealing the arrangement with a handshake. 
  As sales soared, Bader became concerned that, after tax, he would make very little, and he insisted on a new deal, in writing. So, Brickhill agreed to make him a one-off payment from his company Brickhill Publications Limited of £13,125, the majority of which would be for  'expenses', and tax-free, with only a small portion for 'services' and therefore taxable (£276 thousand today). The Inland Revenue subsequently waived any tax liabilities on Bader's earnings. 
  After film director Daniel M. Angel bought the film rights and teamed up with Lewis Gilbert to write the screenplay, Bader came to regret the limiting new deal he had wrung from Brickhill. He was so bitter, he refused to attend the premiere, and only saw the film eleven years later, on television. He never spoke to Brickhill again, and never answered his letters. The feature film of the same title was released in 1956, starring Kenneth More as Bader, topping the box office in Britain that year.
  On the 60th anniversary of Bader's last combat sortie, his widow Joan unveiled a statue at Goodwood, formerly RAF Westhampnett, the aerodrome from which he took off. The 6 ft (1.8 m) bronze sculpture, the first such tribute, was created by Kenneth Potts and was commissioned by the Earl of March, who runs the Goodwood estate.
  The Douglas Bader Foundation was formed in honour of Bader in 1982 by family and friends—many also former RAF pilots who had flown with Bader during the Second World War. One of Bader's artificial legs is kept by the RAF Museum at their warehouse in Stafford, and is not on public display.
  The Northbrook College Sussex campus at Shoreham Airport has a building named after him in which aeronautical and automotive engineering are taught. The building was opened by his wife Joan Murray.
  The Bader Way, in Woodley, Reading is named after Bader. Woodley Airfield, now redeveloped but housing the Museum of Berkshire Aviation, is where Bader lost his legs in a flying accident in 1931.
  The Bader Road, in Poole, Dorset is named after Bader.  
  Amongst other aircraft-related street names in Apley, Telford, Shropshire, is a Bader Close.
  A pub at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, is named after Bader.
  RAF Coltishall, sold off by the MoD, was purchased privately in 2006 and later renamed Badersfield.
  Heyford Park Free School Upper Heyford which is located on the former RAF Station Upper Heyford US Air Force airfield has honoured Bader by using his name for one of the school's houses.  The tie stripe representing Bader is blue.  The other houses are red and yellow. Those houses are named after McGuire and Lynd, two US Air Force pilots who sacrificed themselves when their planes crashed in a nearby village in 1992.
  Bader Drive near Auckland International Airport in Auckland, New Zealand was named in Bader's honour.
caption: Douglas Bader House in Fairford is now the headquarters for the RAF Charitable Trust
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