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.
A similar RAF listing from May 1943 names the Senior Technical Officer of the Hydrogen plant as W P Rogers. Woodis Paschal Rogers was at the Royal Airship Works in 1925 and worked on the R101 airship project. I have been unable to find a photo of this man. Please visit the Gas Plant page in the Topics section and see if you can help.
Jane Harvey. March 2020.
March 2020 updates. A new Unit added this month! MU 25 Cardington was a sub-unit of Maintenance Unit 25 based at Hartlebury. This Unit was at the station from 1939-1956 and was responsible for stores and repairs. It has been very hard to track down this little known Unit - read more about it in the Other Units section and PLEASE send in any details and information you may have. Thank you. Updates have also been added to the Maintenance Unit 26 page in the same section.
Extracts from the RAF Officer lists for June and December 1938 have been added to the No 1 Balloon Training Unit. Please take a look and see if you recognise any of the names.
A personal plea from me. PLEASE TALK TO YOUR ELDERLY RELATIVES!! I have received thousands of e-mails since starting this website many from people searching for information about the wartime experiences of their parents/grandparents etc. A common lament is that questions were never asked so please get your notebooks out and have a chat and start asking questions NOW! Thanks.
Feb 2020 updates. Kathleen Elsie Reader (shown left) began as a Balloon Fabric worker and later become a Barrage Balloon Operator having trained at Cardington mid-1941. Find her story on the "A WAAFs journey WW2" found in the RAF Cardington 1939-1945 section.
Read about Wg Commander Richard Yates who was at the station during WW2. The holder of a Military Medal and a Military Cross. Find his story in the RAF Officers 1936-1945 page in the Peoples Gallery section.
Stuart Ralphs has also made contact about his father in law William Richard Shaw who served in the Balloon Signals Unit. He has a copy of the photo shown on the Balloon Signals page and has identified his father in law on it. Brilliant.Thank you!
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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