TheDowding Legacy


Campaigning for animals has a long history and some truly eminent past activists, as Tony Wardle discovered when he interviewed David Whiting


The Battle of Britain is burnt into the public’s consciousness as a seminal moment in the history of the 20th century, when brave young men took on the mighty Luftwaffe and beat it. The man who made it possible, who


planned the strategy and tactics, was Air Chief Marshal, Hugh Dowding, later to become Lord Dowding. David Whiting remembers him well for he was his adoptive father. David’s biological father was Max


Whiting, the handsome co-pilot of a mine- laying Lancaster bomber which disappeared in 1944. David’s mother Muriel pressed relentlessly to discover his fate and this led to a meeting with Lord Dowding. Max and his crew had fallen victim to a German night fighter over Denmark, she discovered. She also found a love for the mighty Dowding and they were later married and shared their joint beliefs in caring for animals, vegetarianism and spiritualism. It seems that David imbibed


those same values. He was not very sporty but on one occasion at prep school he was knocking up a good score at cricket when he was stumped. His house master, Patrick Moore (yes, that one – the astronomer) reported it as: “Run out after stopping to remove a beetle from the wicket.” That was one of the better tales


from early school days which were pretty grim: “At seven I was sent to prep


school – a small, weedy, skinny boy who was constantly picked on. I was also dyslexic and thought to be stupid so was beaten regularly.” Now robust, jolly, talkative and


distinguished by grey hair and beard, it is impossible not to feel a huge sadness that any child should have had to endure such cruelty. It did not, however, destroy his empathy for animals. Whenever he found an injured bird he would try and cure it by holding it gently in his hands. I don’t want to make David Whiting sound like a victim, because he was also


28 viva!life


enquiring, incorrigibly mischievous and no stranger to gunpowder manufacturing plots and various other schemes, usually with a mechanical bias – an early warning system for prowling house masters after lights out. David became vegetarian at 13, unaware


that his mother and father had also made that decision long ago. But it was matters mechanical that occupied him and Lord Dowding, also an engineer at heart, encouraged him in this. David was colour blind and flying was


out so Hugh encouraged him towards a career in aeronautical engineering with the Bristol Aircraft Company at Filton. While David was learning his skills and driving rally cars, Hugh Dowding was using his place in the House of Lords to fight for animals while his mother was


Left: Muriel, the Lady Dowding and the faux fur robes she wore to the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Below: Lord Dowding


Hugh Dowding died in 1970 but


David’s mother continued with BWC, endlessly trying to expose the appalling cruelty involved in furs and cosmetics. “At that time my mother was making


claims about animal cruelty such as the barbarity to Karakul lambs but I felt we needed to show people what actually happened and so I started carrying out investigations by going to the source of the cruelty wherever it took place. “There was an unseen force driving me


and none of it was about me, David Whiting, and my ego. I was merely a representative of the animals and if I failed I would be letting them down. “I sold my cars, bought a 16mm camera


and taught myself how to use it, begged film from Kodak and tackled my investigations as though they were engineering projects. In 1973 I went on to the Labrador ice flows and witnessed the slaughter of harp seal cubs. I had to train myself to be neutral, not to allow any feelings of revulsion to swamp me. I could not afford to show passion as the seal killers were extremely angry and I felt they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if they could – one push off the ice flow and into the water and you would last


just three minutes. It is when you sit in the edit suite that the reality hits you and the cruelty takes your breath away.” In 1974 David went to Afghanistan


founding the cruelty-free cosmetics and clothing company, Beauty Without Cruelty (BWC) in a friend’s London garage. “I really enjoyed my apprenticeship,”


says David, “until I was put to work on torpedoes and missiles. One day, without any forethought, I just resigned and changed my life entirely. It was a moral and spiritual obligation that I believe was preordained.”


and India to expose the Karakul lamb trade. These are the new-born lambs killed for their tight, curly pelts known as astrakhan. He kitted out an old Land Rover with four cameras and headed off through Iran up to the mountain


border and on to India and Nepal. “I always tried to do research on the


ground before going into the interior. There was a big reception at the Masshad hotel in Iran being held by the chief of police and I simply infiltrated myself into it and by talking to the chief of police and others, was able to establish a contact who knew the nomadic tribes involved in


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