RAF Bekesbourne

RAF Bekesbourne lay a few miles south-east of Canterbury in Kent and began life in the First World War, established around 1916 as a base for home-defence and training units. No. 50 (Home Defence) Squadron operated from here against German raiders threatening London and the south-east, flying types such as the Royal Aircraft Factory S.E.5a, while No. 56 Squadron was briefly attached during 1917. Among those who passed through was Major A. T. Harris, who commanded the station from late 1918 into 1919 and later, as Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, led RAF Bomber Command in the Second World War.

Between the wars the aerodrome turned to civil use, becoming home to the Kent Flying Club and serving early private aviators. It returned to military hands in May 1940, when the Westland Lysanders of No. 2 Squadron arrived for armed reconnaissance over France during the Dunkirk period, joined for two days by Lysanders of No. 13 Squadron. The flying station closed soon afterwards, in June 1940.

The site was never reactivated for major wartime flying and afterwards reverted largely to farmland, with later housing built over part of it. Several airfield buildings, including a former officers’ mess, survived as private dwellings, and a memorial marks the site’s aviation past.