RAF Eastchurch

RAF Eastchurch stood on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent, on land that became one of the cradles of British aviation. Flying began here around 1909, and the Short brothers established aircraft manufacturing alongside an early naval flying school. Among those who took to the air over the site were the pioneer John Moore-Brabazon and, in 1913, Winston Churchill, who learned to fly at the station.

After service with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War, the airfield passed to the Royal Air Force in 1918 and went on to fill a wide range of roles. Between the wars and into the Second World War it served successively under Coastal Command (within No. 16 Group), Technical Training Command, Fighter Command (No. 11 Group) and Army Cooperation Command, before settling into a training role under Flying Training Command’s No. 54 Group from 1943.

During the Battle of Britain the station hosted fighter units, including No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron, and its exposed position near the Thames Estuary made it a target for repeated Luftwaffe attacks. More than two dozen squadrons passed through over the years.

The RAF gave up the airfield in 1946. The site is now occupied by HM Prison Standford Hill, where several wartime structures and pillboxes survive and some roads carry names recalling the airfield’s aviation past. The Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust unveiled a commemorative marker there in 2016.