Royal visit to mark Bridgnorth's Dutch links

A large crowd gathered outside St Mary's Church in the town where Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands took part in a service of remembrance for the 53 Dutch airmen who trained at RAF Bridgnorth at the end of the war and who later died while serving in the Royal Netherlands Air Force.

RAF Bridgnorth, at Stanmore, was a major recruit training establishment during the war and also for many years of the following peace.

Prince Bernhard's visit was a special honour for the Shropshire town, as it was one of his last public engagements as consort of the reigning monarch, Queen Juliana, who was to abdicate just a few days later, on April 30, in favour of her daughter, Princess Beatrix.

He was loudly applauded by both Dutch visitors and Bridgnorth people alike as he walked from his car to be met by the Mayor of Bridgnorth, Councillor Mrs Shirley Green, and her fellow town councillors.

At the end of the service the 68-year-old prince unwittingly disappointed some of the people who had lined the route he was expected to take by car when he decided instead to walk to the official luncheon at the Parlors Hall Hotel, Low Town.

A guard of honour outside the church was formed by the boys of 63 Squadron (Bridgnorth) Air Training Corps, together with the standard bearers of Bridgnorth Royal British Legion and the Royal Air Force Association.

The memorial service was conducted by the Rector of St Mary's, the Rev Peter Whittaker, the Rev Aart Van der Poel, and Father Richard Stoffels.

Father Stoffels, in air force uniform, read the names of the Dutch airmen who had died since training at Stanmore at the end of the war and gave a moving address from the pulpit.

Flowers were laid beneath a roll of honour in church by the widows of seven of the airmen, who were flown from the Netherlands by Prince Bernhard ­— a renowned pilot – in his personal Fokker Friendship aircraft.

All the Dutch airmen in the 140-strong party at the event did basic training at Stanmore at the end of the war, when most of them had just been liberated from German occupation and the Royal Netherlands Air Force was being rebuilt.

Many of the cadets were presented with their wings by Prince Bernhard, who was an honorary air commodore and flew many operational missions with the Royal Air Force.

As part of the memorial service the prince presented Councillor Mrs Green with a plaque to thank Bridgnorth for its hospitality to the young Dutch flyers in the late 1940s.

In return, she presented the Dutch royal visitor with a picture of a Hawker Hurricane fighter, personally signed by many of the Battle of Britain fighter pilots.

RAF Bridgnorth was opened on November 6, 1939, and saw many thousands of raw recruits pass through its gates for basic training.

The size of a small town, it had many of its own facilities, including its own cinema and church, but inevitably its life became intertwined with that of Bridgnorth, and of course many of the young men there would go to the town to have a drink or socialise.

Despite being an RAF base, it never had an airfield. After the war ended, countless young men began their National Service at the base, and there are many still around who have memories, both good and bad, of their time there.

The station crest showed a portcullis and torch. The motto translated as “This is the gate, The walls are men.”

Although actually at Stanmore, the base was named RAF Bridgnorth because there was already an RAF Stanmore at Middlesex.

The basic eight week training course included square bashing, firearms drill, physical training, and combat training.

The friendly relations with Bridgnorth town were underlined when RAF Bridgnorth was given the Freedom of Entry to the Borough in 1950, entitling the station in the words of the official proclamation “to enter the town on all ceremonial occasions and march through the streets with bayonets fixed, drums beating and colour flying.”

With the end of National Service and cuts in RAF manning levels, RAF Bridgnorth’s days were numbered.

The last passing-out parade of recruits was on February 8, 1963, and closure quickly followed.