WW1 Treasures at RAFM Reserve Collection

The rest of it is elsewhere, probably in the many crates! It looked like the scene out of Indiana Jones, think it was the ‘ark of the lost covenant’ one.

Anyway, here’s a couple more photos

Handley Page Heyford cockpit interior

“Got Spitfire?”

OK Rob, thanks. Someone on AIX had a photo from further back and someone else came up with The Kestrel gliding Club site with AP.4488A on it.
I have to say it looks far from a “complete” Bessonneau at Stafford – unless there’s a lot of bits elsewhere.

Roger Smith.

I’m afraid that’s the only photograph of the Bessoneau framework I have – I could e-mail you the high resolution copy if that’s of use?

Rob,
Do you have any more pictures of the Bessoneau Hangar framework? – in particular the roof trusses.
Am trying to identify what is almost certainly a WW1 hangar in Coventry and the upright A-frames look identical
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=84728
Was there, perhaps, more than one design of Bessoneau?

Roger Smith.

It’s fantastic to see these items safe and well. It’s a shame that they cant be stored at Cosford in a room similar to the storage room at the National Railway Museum. At the NRM the store is open the the public, but the items are effectively ‘in store’… Not in fancy displays, but you can wander around and see things like railway furniture… Things like that. The bench made from DH4 props is astonishing! It would be great to see!

Here’s my explanation for ‘maternity jacket’, copy and pasted from another forum

Apparently it looks like the sort of jacket pregnant women used to wear – i’ve never seen one before myself so wouldn’t know! They are very nice jackets though (the RFC ones that is), currently waiting to hear back about having one made for myself

To add to that, they did have an official name (can’t remember it now), maternity jacket was a nickname which stuck, like the ‘gor blimey’ cap worn by the rest of the Army, so nicknamed because apparently a Sergeant who saw it when they first arrived at the front/depot etc said ‘Gor’blimey!’

John.

That style of tunic was worn by men and was called the maternity style or pattern. Unless I’ve missed the joke?

Regards,

kev35

Freakin’ halarious. :D:D:D

Seriously..is that a well known term? I’ve never heard it.
I fear I maybe the victim of a language barrier.

Simlpy the best post we have had on this forum in a long time! Do you have any more pics?

Martin

John.

That style of tunic was worn by men and was called the maternity style or pattern. Unless I’ve missed the joke?

Regards,

kev35

Yep, this is Stafford Roger.

As for the RAF in WW1, I presume it was the same as the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps, the RFC branch of which became the WRAF – married women were allowed, however only if their husband was on another front (so you would be alright if based in the UK and husband was in France, or in France if your husband was in Italy/Salonika etc)

I do have a few other photos, but I was mostly there for the WW1 stuff, will try and add more later.

Cheers, Rob

This is the Stafford store??
Great to see these – thanks.

Roger Smith.

RE; the maternity clothes…
I’m surprised they wuld have needed them.
I would have thoughtthat service was open to single women only…or if one (married or not) got pregnant, she would have been discharged.

Or was the RAF more modern then we’d assume for the period?

Fantastic photos… It’s an amazing collection. Do you have any more photos you can share with us or other aircraft / parts in the collection?