50 Pence - Charles III Battle of Britain (Sir Hugh Dowding)

Sir Hugh Dowding commanded RAF Fighter Command during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940, and his insistence on conserving squadrons — rather than feeding them piecemeal into the fight over France — was the strategic decision that made the subsequent defence of Britain possible. Churchill sacked him in November 1940, weeks after the battle he had won. Guernsey's interest in commemorating him is not purely abstract: the island was under German occupation from June 1940, its civilian population directly subject to the outcome Dowding's forces prevented from spreading further.