August 2024
The Branch meeting for 22 August was a presentation by Dr Noel Stimson about the Bembridge Royal Naval Air Station. With rare and unseen photographs takes from glass negatives by a pilot serving there, Noel gave a thoroughly researched narrative on the Air station which was sited there from 1914 to 1918. He featured some of the float planes based there during this time which were built by Island firms J Samuel White and S.E. Saunders. Some of the more famous pilots of the day were shown, and it culminated in 1918 when the RN Air Service and The RFC merged to form the Royal Air Force. It was a subject that Branch members had no knowledge of that played a part in the defence of the Island during WW1.