On the evening of 27th November, 1940, Mrs. Marjorie French sat alone in the air raid shelter at her home in Glenn Avenue, Purley. Warmed by an electric fire she was awaiting the return of her husband, John, a toolmaker by trade. As she listened for the sound of his car, the drone of an aircraft caught her attention...and then a bomb dropped.
On the 4th June, 1943, Wing Commander Leslie Sydney Ford, DFC and Bar, met his end leading 402 squadron, when ...
On the night of 2/3rd June in 1944, a terrible tragedy befell a Coulsdon family..
Why would RAF Kenley become involved with carrier-deck landings? Answer: By 1942 the Admiralty were concerned over the ability of the ...
Origins of Kenley Airfield Visit to No. 615 Squadron at Kenley, April 16th 1939 Churchill is in a seat-type parachute ...
Why was this strange photo of a tipped-up bi-plane considered important enough to be printed in the Daily Mail, one of the most successful papers of the day?
Pilot Officer William Daniel Disbrey wrote off two of No.3 Squadron's Bristol Bulldog fighters within a week during 1934, and escaped relatively unscathed..but would his luck hold out?
"My number three man called that he was going down and I saw him bale out"
On the 22nd April, 1927, David D'Arcy Greig DFC, an experienced pilot on the staff of Headquarters Fighting Area, had a close shave which nearly cost him his life, whilst carrying out a spin test on a Gloster Gamecock.
Sunday 1st September, 1940, saw 11 Hurricanes from 85 Squadron, based at RAF Croydon, sent out to intercept a raid heading approaching Tunbridge Wells and heading towards Kenley....
In August 2019, we were visited by the family of Flight Sergeant William George Rose, who served in RAF Kenley’s ...
Our deepest condolences go out to the Royal Family on the sad passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Unbelievably, during the Summer of 1940, the nerve centre of RAF Kenley’s Command and Control was located in an ordinary ...
On 19th October, 1925, two Breguet 19 bi-planes took off from Croydon aerodrome flown by four intrepid Japanese airmen on an epic journey from Japan to Europe.
Only two days after the terror of the daylight raid on Chaldon Rd, the area was hit again, this time taking the lives of two women at the opposite ends of life...