Tedder joined the British Army in 1913 and transferred to the Royal Flying Corps in 1916. Remaining in the Royal Air Force (RAF) after World War I, he became RAF commander of the Far East Command (1936–38) and thereafter director of research and development. Appointed head of the RAF Middle East Command in 1941, he later took control of all Allied air operations in North Africa and Italy. He was knighted in 1942. Tedder contributed to the German defeat in North Africa and the success of Allied landings in Sicily and Italy (1943) by cooperating with other Allied forces, interdicting enemy supply lines, and giving tactical support to Allied ground troops.

Appointed Eisenhower's deputy in early 1944 and responsible for coordinating all Allied air operations in western Europe, Tedder repeated his earlier successes by sealing off the Normandy beaches from the air and keeping German reinforcements from reaching the Allied beachhead. His bombing of the German transportation network significantly sped the Allied advance during the final months of World War II. He was elevated to the peerage in 1946 as 1st Baron Tedder of Glenguin, and he became the first peacetime chief of the air staff and senior member of the air council, serving until 1951. He wrote With Prejudice (1966), his account of World War II.