page_title: Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry
section_title: Background and education
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry / Background and education
caption_attribution_description: English: Theresa 'Nellie', Marchioness of Londonderry (1856-1919)
context_page_description: Charles Stewart Henry Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 7th Marquess of Londonderry, KG, MVO, PC, PC, styled Lord Stewart until 1884 and Viscount Castlereagh between 1884 and 1915, was a British peer and politician. He is best remembered for his tenure as Secretary of State for Air in the 1930s and for his 'understanding' of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. In 1935 he was removed from the Air Ministry but retained in the Cabinet as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords.
  His main record at the Air Ministry included:
  He preserved the core of the RAF at a time when even this was under threat from the Treasury. He encouraged the planning of vital new fighter aircraft such as the Hurricane and Spitfire. It was under his tutelage that radar was developed for use by the RAF. The Staff College at Cranwell was opened in the last months of his time as air minister....[But in underestimating the Luftwaffe he was] badly astray over the issue of German air strength in 1934–5."
context_section_description: The eldest son of The 6th Marquess of Londonderry and Lady Theresa Susey Helen, daughter of The 19th Earl of Shrewsbury, he was educated at Eton College and at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst. His father's family were of partial East Donegal Ulster-Scots descent.
caption: His mother, Theresa ('Nellie'), Marchioness of Londonderry, John Singer Sargent, 1912
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