RAF Cardington Camp
Hello, welcome to the RAF Cardington history website set up in 2012. The station just south of Bedford town was in operation from 1936 to 2000 and although primarily a recruitment centre was home to a large array of Units. Balloon Units were stationed here, a direct legacy from the early airship programme begun at Cardington in 1915.
This month seees a new page created entitled " A WAAFs journey WW2" found in the RAF Cardington 1939-1945 section. Thanks to her son Colin making contact we can follow his mothers career in the WAAF duriing the war. Kathleen Elsie Reader (shown left) trained as a Balloon Fabric worker and went on to become a Barrage Balloon Operator having trained at Cardington mid 1941.
We do not often come across such information so thank you Colin! What a lovely lady.
Also new this month read about Wg Commander Richard Yates who was at the station during WW2. The holder of a Military Medal and a Military Cross awarded in WW1 this brave man re-enlisted for WW2 and served as a Senior Balloon Officer at the station. Find his story in the RAF Officers 1936-1945 page in the Peoples Gallery section. Official Officer Listings for four Units on the site have also been added to this page all dated between 1937 and 1938.
Stuart Ralphs has also made contact with information about his father in law William Richard Shaw who served in the Balloon Signals Unit. He also has a copy of the photo shown on the Balloon Signals page on this website and has identified his father in law on it which is fantastic. William Shaw was a Wireless Operator in the Unit. Stuart needs to fill in the blanks about Williams career so please read more in the page found in the Balloon Units section and see if you can help him.
And finally a personal plea from me. PLEASE TALK TO YOUR ELDERLY RELATIVES!! I have received thousands of e-mails since starting this website many of which are from people searching for information about the wartime experiences of their parents/grandparents etc. A commom lament is that questions were never asked so please get your notebooks out and have a chat and start asking questions NOW! Thanks.
Jane Harvey
February 2020.
Grp Capt A R Arnold DSO, DFC - the longest serving Station Commander from Nov 1939- Mar 1945
A 1943 RAF Cardington cricket team. Sport of any kind was high on the agenda for staff in their spare time.
A March 1940 station concert programme.
A A B Thomson - holder of The Military Cross & Bar. The first Station Commander of RAF Cardington 1936
No 102 Dispersal Unit was set up to 'demob' the thousands of RAF men returning home.
During 1949/1951 over 120 ex RAF Czech pilots fled persecution in their home country and made their way to RAF Cardington.
The two magnificent sheds still standing proud. Home to airships from 1916-1930 and put to numerous uses by the RAF in later years.
Renamed MU217 RAF Cardington in 1955 - the Gas Plant supplied RAF depots throughout the world.
A Memorial Stone for RAF Cardington.
On the morning of Saturday 18th May 2019 a memorial stone to RAF Cardington was unveiled. Special guests assembled to witness the unveiling of the stone located at the front of the Shorts Building (known as Station HQ in the RAF years). We were specially honoured to welcome the Lousada family to the memorial. From 1956 to 1959 Group Captain Lousada was Station Commander at Cardington and on July 27th 1959 he accepted the Freedom of Bedford on behalf of the station from the Lord Mayor of Bedford. We were delighted that his youngest son Michael (shown above right) had agreed to unveil the stone.
The stone was designed and totally financed by Bellway Homes who are the major developers of the former station which is now a housing development. Responding to a request to provide a lasting memorial to the station they agreed without hesitation to support the initiative. Permission was obtained from the MOD to use the RAF emblem on the memorial and the process began.
Thank you Bellway Homes!!
More details of the memorial can be found on the Memorial Unveiling Page in the Topic Section. A huge thank you is due to Bellway Homes for supporting and financing this project right from the beginning. I think you will agree they have done a good job. Certainly without them this memorial would not have happened. Thank you from Jane Harvey.
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