RAF News

During our Centenary year we will be focusing on a different decade each month; this month, we have been honouring and celebrating the 1920's. A significant and exciting event of 1929 was the laying of the foundation stone for the new College Hall.

It was Lord Trenchard's vision that the new Service would have a college for officers built along the same lines as Dartmouth and Sandhurst, which in turn would establish the RAF as a permanent feature of Britain's military landscape.
Trenchard felt that Cranwell was perfect as it was "Marooned in the wilderness, cut off from pastimes they could not organise for themselves, the cadets would find life cheaper, healthier and more wholesome".

On 29th April 1929, a very wet and windy day; guests proceeded to a hayfield where the foundation stone was laid. VIP's at this ceremony included: Marshal of the RAF Lord Trenchard and Lady Trenchard, Air Vice-Marshal Longcroft, Sir Samuel (Secretary of State for Air) and Lady Maud Hoare and the architect of College Hall, Sir James Grey West.

The foundation stone included a time capsule. This is a specially prepared tinned steel box. It holds a record of all who were present at the ceremony, together with a special edition of the College Journal which contained the names and details of every cadet who had passed through the College since its inception in February 1920.

At our recent Centenary parade, we buried a second time capsule, to be opened in February 2120, which included a letter from the present Commandant to the future Commandant, a list of all Commandants and a list of all cadets who were in training on 5 February 2020.

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