The Royal Flying Corps (later the RAF) and Ely
The flat landscape of East Anglia is ideal for air force bases and the area played its part in both World Wars. However, it is often forgotten that during World War One Ely was home to the Royal Flying Corps 4th Stores Distributing Park, which was situated in the sheds in the goods yard of Ely Railway Station (currently occupied by Tesco and its car park).
The Royal Flying Corps logistics organisation was enormous, with it having been said that in 1918 their inventory included something like 50,000 different types of items, whereas Tesco Direct at the beginning of this century had an inventory half this size! The RFC had seven main Stores Depots throughout the country, which sent out materials through eleven Stores Distributing Parks. The SDs each held different types of stock and then individual items were issued to the RFC home based training units through the SDPs. Together Ely (SDP4) and Lincoln (SDP6) serviced East Anglia. The SDPs were created in 1917.
The presence of the RFC/RAF in Ely was a significant contribution to the social life of the city and the Ely Standard includes a number of articles on occasions such as whist drives, parties and other entertainments which were held at the Corn Exchange on the Market Square. The Ely Flying Park had its own concert party known as the “Pom Poms” who regularly featured in popular and well attended entertainments in the city. For example, in the first month of 1918 the Pom Poms entertained the inmates of the Workhouse at New Year, and just over a week later were part of an entertainment at Ely Cinema Hall raising funds for the free buffet for soldiers at Liverpool Street Station. The Pom Poms were known as “clever performers” with a repertoire of choruses, songs and dances. The RFC staff whose names appeared most frequently in this regard were: Captain Bradley; Air Mechanics Silverell, Leslie, Freeman, Smith, Tipson and the enigmatically named “She”; Second Lieutenant Will Gardner; Lieutenant Fielder “a clever elocutionist”; while even the officer in charge of the Park, Major Bond, was known to appear occasionally “in gown and wig” to make up the numbers. (At the function in the cinema hall thirteen year old Stanley Munson, the son of one of the Air Mechanics, raised a further £8 12s through the auction of three of his paintings of aeroplanes.) Will Gardener was actually a popular entertainer of the day and well known for his humorous and dramatic recitals - his last performance in February 1919 was packed out with the newspaper recording "the residents will always retain pleasant recollections of his stay in the city".
At other times locals could be somewhat resentful of the actions of the RFC / RAF, some of whom had a reputation for driving at high speeds through the city, to the general endangerment of the public. In December 1917 Sergeant William Laurie was called before Ely's Petty Sessions for testing out a motor tender on Lynn Road. The sergeant insisted he had been driving at about ten or twelve miles an hour, while witnesses estimated his speed could have been as much as thirty miles an hour! He was fined fifty shillings with costs - as his Major attended the trial, one may assume that further action would have been taken once Sergeant Laurie was back at base, especially as he had been acting against RFC regulations. Unfortunately he was not the only member of the RFC to appear before the Petty Sessions on such charges! At the end of February 1918 Reginald Pike of the RFC was also caught speeding on Lynn Road. At the local Petty Sessions he was fined £1, the exasperated magistrate proclaiming “the public must be protected”.
The RAF's motor transport was somewhat more welcome when, in June 1918, the Stores Park promised to supply a motor lorry at any time of day or night to pull the Ely Fire Engine. A crisis had been caused because the Urban Council had been unable to guarantee a supply of horses for the engine, and the drivers had all been called up to fight. The offer caused much debate in the Council, with Councillors doubting whether a lorry could be guaranteed to be on permanent standby. It was also realised that in actuality a lorry, unlike horses, would only function on good roads and that those living outside of the city boundaries would now have to be warned that the Council, even with the assistance of the RAF, could not undertake to send an engine to a fire in all circumstances.
Many local women were employed at the Park in a civilian role, for example, Lily Beamiss (cousin of the Herbert Beamiss on the War Memorial) is known to have worked in the storerooms of the SDP for the last year of the War. There were also opportunities for employment for other people on the park - for example Mrs Sarah Anne Oakey ran the RFC's tearoom until her untimely death. The presence of the Flying Park was also responsible for several romances in Ely, and in April 1918 Doris Staines, daughter of a well-known local Methodist preacher, and a telephonist at the stores, married Corporal Albert. E. Green of the RFC at Ely’s Primitive Methodist Church. In January 1919 Air Mechanic Garnett J T Wallis of Cambridge married Eleanor Rose Nellie Cooper, a teacher at Silver Street Infants School This was followed in July 1919 by the marriage of Miss Lilian Sharpe to Sergeant John Leigh who had worked at the Park since it opened - the NCOs and men from the Distribution Park decorated Silver Street with lines of flags for the celebration and the wedding procession consisted of four decorated motor lorries from the Park.
When a separate Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was formed alongside the new RAF in April 1918 a general recruitment drive began and it was possible for local women to join up as "immobiles" (i.e. living at home). Ely names known from this period are: Florence Ethel Day; Edith Norris; Alice Maud Mary Rich; Lilian Plumb. The WRAFs' duties could include general clerical work and being telephonists (shorthand typists were the highest paid of all airwomen) or domestic duties such as laundry or cooking. All immobiles would have been demobilised in July 1919 and the WRAF ceased to exist in April 1920 - until the Second World War. However, in May 1921, Lilian Plumb (former WRAF) married Albert Hunter of Manchester (former clerk in the RAF Park Stores).
After the War was over the RAF requested exclusive use of the Paradise Sports Ground for two days a week from the Council. Following normal Army protocol, they were not allowed to speak at the Council meeting and the request was refused out of hand. Letters in later newspapers show that some at least of the citizens of Ely felt that the request should be granted, as long as it didn’t interfere with the city’s own sports clubs when they started up again. At the Council meeting it became clear that the RAF's noisy presence in the city was not appreciated by all of the local population. When the local council voted against the proposal, the chairman spoke acidly of the petrol the RAF wasted, because their trolleys were always going nosily up and down Forehill. There was also resentment because of the time spent by women from the Park in decorating the Corn Exchange for their parties – parties in which they burnt and wasted gas until the small hours of the morning while other residents had hardly enough gas lighting to see to read their newspapers at home. Perhaps many of Ely's residents would not have agreed with the council's complaints because as the last few RAF dances took place at the Corn Exchange in 1919 the newspaper commented: "These social functions have become very popular in the city, the organising abilities displayed by members of the RAF at Ely leaving little to be desired."
The type of general stock which was held at Ely can be discovered from an advertisement in the Cambridge Daily News of 7th May 1919, when tenders were invited for materials currently held at the stores – these included rolled steel joists, iron barrel stanchions, wire, nails, bolts, nuts, ironite, and cast iron rain water pipes and gutters. Of course they must have also held more specialist stock related to the aeroplanes themselves, but these would not have been placed in a general sale. Finally, in November 1919, auctioneer Harry Hovell held a two day sale at the Park which was attended by people from all over England; over 2,500 lengths of ash and silver spruce timber and 1,200 sheets of plywood were sold, as well as pipes, bolts, nuts, steel joists, stanchions etc, at what were clearly knock down prices.
The Royal Flying Corps logistics organisation was enormous, with it having been said that in 1918 their inventory included something like 50,000 different types of items, whereas Tesco Direct at the beginning of this century had an inventory half this size! The RFC had seven main Stores Depots throughout the country, which sent out materials through eleven Stores Distributing Parks. The SDs each held different types of stock and then individual items were issued to the RFC home based training units through the SDPs. Together Ely (SDP4) and Lincoln (SDP6) serviced East Anglia. The SDPs were created in 1917.
The presence of the RFC/RAF in Ely was a significant contribution to the social life of the city and the Ely Standard includes a number of articles on occasions such as whist drives, parties and other entertainments which were held at the Corn Exchange on the Market Square. The Ely Flying Park had its own concert party known as the “Pom Poms” who regularly featured in popular and well attended entertainments in the city. For example, in the first month of 1918 the Pom Poms entertained the inmates of the Workhouse at New Year, and just over a week later were part of an entertainment at Ely Cinema Hall raising funds for the free buffet for soldiers at Liverpool Street Station. The Pom Poms were known as “clever performers” with a repertoire of choruses, songs and dances. The RFC staff whose names appeared most frequently in this regard were: Captain Bradley; Air Mechanics Silverell, Leslie, Freeman, Smith, Tipson and the enigmatically named “She”; Second Lieutenant Will Gardner; Lieutenant Fielder “a clever elocutionist”; while even the officer in charge of the Park, Major Bond, was known to appear occasionally “in gown and wig” to make up the numbers. (At the function in the cinema hall thirteen year old Stanley Munson, the son of one of the Air Mechanics, raised a further £8 12s through the auction of three of his paintings of aeroplanes.) Will Gardener was actually a popular entertainer of the day and well known for his humorous and dramatic recitals - his last performance in February 1919 was packed out with the newspaper recording "the residents will always retain pleasant recollections of his stay in the city".
At other times locals could be somewhat resentful of the actions of the RFC / RAF, some of whom had a reputation for driving at high speeds through the city, to the general endangerment of the public. In December 1917 Sergeant William Laurie was called before Ely's Petty Sessions for testing out a motor tender on Lynn Road. The sergeant insisted he had been driving at about ten or twelve miles an hour, while witnesses estimated his speed could have been as much as thirty miles an hour! He was fined fifty shillings with costs - as his Major attended the trial, one may assume that further action would have been taken once Sergeant Laurie was back at base, especially as he had been acting against RFC regulations. Unfortunately he was not the only member of the RFC to appear before the Petty Sessions on such charges! At the end of February 1918 Reginald Pike of the RFC was also caught speeding on Lynn Road. At the local Petty Sessions he was fined £1, the exasperated magistrate proclaiming “the public must be protected”.
The RAF's motor transport was somewhat more welcome when, in June 1918, the Stores Park promised to supply a motor lorry at any time of day or night to pull the Ely Fire Engine. A crisis had been caused because the Urban Council had been unable to guarantee a supply of horses for the engine, and the drivers had all been called up to fight. The offer caused much debate in the Council, with Councillors doubting whether a lorry could be guaranteed to be on permanent standby. It was also realised that in actuality a lorry, unlike horses, would only function on good roads and that those living outside of the city boundaries would now have to be warned that the Council, even with the assistance of the RAF, could not undertake to send an engine to a fire in all circumstances.
Many local women were employed at the Park in a civilian role, for example, Lily Beamiss (cousin of the Herbert Beamiss on the War Memorial) is known to have worked in the storerooms of the SDP for the last year of the War. There were also opportunities for employment for other people on the park - for example Mrs Sarah Anne Oakey ran the RFC's tearoom until her untimely death. The presence of the Flying Park was also responsible for several romances in Ely, and in April 1918 Doris Staines, daughter of a well-known local Methodist preacher, and a telephonist at the stores, married Corporal Albert. E. Green of the RFC at Ely’s Primitive Methodist Church. In January 1919 Air Mechanic Garnett J T Wallis of Cambridge married Eleanor Rose Nellie Cooper, a teacher at Silver Street Infants School This was followed in July 1919 by the marriage of Miss Lilian Sharpe to Sergeant John Leigh who had worked at the Park since it opened - the NCOs and men from the Distribution Park decorated Silver Street with lines of flags for the celebration and the wedding procession consisted of four decorated motor lorries from the Park.
When a separate Women's Royal Air Force (WRAF) was formed alongside the new RAF in April 1918 a general recruitment drive began and it was possible for local women to join up as "immobiles" (i.e. living at home). Ely names known from this period are: Florence Ethel Day; Edith Norris; Alice Maud Mary Rich; Lilian Plumb. The WRAFs' duties could include general clerical work and being telephonists (shorthand typists were the highest paid of all airwomen) or domestic duties such as laundry or cooking. All immobiles would have been demobilised in July 1919 and the WRAF ceased to exist in April 1920 - until the Second World War. However, in May 1921, Lilian Plumb (former WRAF) married Albert Hunter of Manchester (former clerk in the RAF Park Stores).
After the War was over the RAF requested exclusive use of the Paradise Sports Ground for two days a week from the Council. Following normal Army protocol, they were not allowed to speak at the Council meeting and the request was refused out of hand. Letters in later newspapers show that some at least of the citizens of Ely felt that the request should be granted, as long as it didn’t interfere with the city’s own sports clubs when they started up again. At the Council meeting it became clear that the RAF's noisy presence in the city was not appreciated by all of the local population. When the local council voted against the proposal, the chairman spoke acidly of the petrol the RAF wasted, because their trolleys were always going nosily up and down Forehill. There was also resentment because of the time spent by women from the Park in decorating the Corn Exchange for their parties – parties in which they burnt and wasted gas until the small hours of the morning while other residents had hardly enough gas lighting to see to read their newspapers at home. Perhaps many of Ely's residents would not have agreed with the council's complaints because as the last few RAF dances took place at the Corn Exchange in 1919 the newspaper commented: "These social functions have become very popular in the city, the organising abilities displayed by members of the RAF at Ely leaving little to be desired."
The type of general stock which was held at Ely can be discovered from an advertisement in the Cambridge Daily News of 7th May 1919, when tenders were invited for materials currently held at the stores – these included rolled steel joists, iron barrel stanchions, wire, nails, bolts, nuts, ironite, and cast iron rain water pipes and gutters. Of course they must have also held more specialist stock related to the aeroplanes themselves, but these would not have been placed in a general sale. Finally, in November 1919, auctioneer Harry Hovell held a two day sale at the Park which was attended by people from all over England; over 2,500 lengths of ash and silver spruce timber and 1,200 sheets of plywood were sold, as well as pipes, bolts, nuts, steel joists, stanchions etc, at what were clearly knock down prices.
Planes, Airships and Ely
One of the boats which was used to give rides on the river in better times has helped rescue a plane which came down nearby (1916).
Although Ely did not have a local air base there were several in the area, and so stories relating to planes and airships do appear in the local newspaper:
- In August 1914 a military monoplane which had lost its way descended at Little Downham.
- Ely suffered a four year blackout of the city following a zeppelin bombing raid on King's Lynn in January 1915 which made the council realise they were also vulnerable.
- Men from Ely who were part of the 8th Reserve Battalion of the Suffolk Regiment got their names in the newspaper when they extinguished and dug up three fire bombs dropped by a zeppelin within a hundred yards of the Anglo-American Oil Company's storage tank on Oulton Broad in April 1915.
- In May 1916 an aeroplane was forced to land with engine trouble at Little Downham. As the plane was there all day, a lot of people came to look it over and some 200 assembled to watch it take off.
- On November 23rd 1916 “a daring aviator” did a loop over Market Street when he spotted the crowds gathered for market, who duly applauded.
- By April 1917 locals were becoming used to planes making forced descents all over the area, one came down at Ely, but others were seen at Soham, Sutton, Littleport and Little Downham over the years, while the flat area around Prickwillow seems to have been particularly attractive to pilots in trouble.
- In May 1917 a British airship passed over Ely heading north giving "a splendid view of the monster of the air, which glided swiftly and gracefully along at no great height, occasionally making a turn to right or left. The airship was under perfect control and presented a fine sight in the blazing sunshine." Just over a month later another airship circled the railway station and flying park - this one coming so low that the citizens thought it was going to land....it didn't.
- By June 1917 planes were becoming a common sight - the newspaper recording that nine had flown over in one day. Unfortunately one crashed at Prickwillow.
- In January 1918 the newspaper noted that although aeroplanes were now becoming a more common sight in the Ely area, balloons were not seen so often - so when a balloon descended just off the Stuntney Road it excited much local interest.
- In March 1918 the whole country embarked on a major fundraising drive for military equipment. Different areas were given different targets, e.g. Birmingham was supposed to raise enough for a Dreadnought battleship; the Isle of Ely was asked to raise £90,000 for 36 aeroplanes, of which the city's share was £20,000 for 8 planes. The money was raised by the purchase of War Bonds, Postal Orders or War Savings Certificates which would mature in four or five years. In four days Ely raised £33,100, which by the end of the week had risen to £60,480, enough for 24 planes. Together the whole Isle of Ely purchased 112 planes.
The 8th Battalion of the Suffolk Reserves who dealt with the fire bombs on Oulton Broad. The Ely men are Private Smith (top row left), and the two men at the left hand of the front standing row are Private Reg Wayman and Private Sindall.
