Through adversity to the stars via Frognall

from I'd Rather Be In Deeping August 18

70 years of the National Health Service

Known as Market Deeping Airfield, this class 2 landing ground was officially listed as a 75 acre field, one and a half miles from St James Deeping Railway station, and one of 38 in Lincolnshire at the time of the First World War. It occupied a piece of land known as ‘The 90 Acres’ east of the Stamford to Spalding road (A16) between Deeping Common and Frognall.

Consisting of a wooden hut with a supply of petrol landing flares and spares, this was the responsibility of the Royal Defence Corps who were billeted at the Granary at Willow Lodge Farm, Spalding Road, Frognall. The Royal Flying Corps Motto ‘Through adversity to the stars’ remains the motto of the Royal Airforce.

Early planes were unreliable as revealed in a letter to his parents in Boston from Jack Baker, RFC; ‘We were flying over France when the engine stopped altogether. And a good job we were 3000 feet up in the air or I should have been killed outright. When the engine stopped the officer said to me, ‘Baker our time has come. Be brave and die like a man’. And he shook hands with me. I shall always remember as long as I live the ten minutes that followed. The next thing I remembered, I was in a barn in a field.’

The need for planes in 1915 was urgent and all Lincolnshire major engineering firms, except those manufacturing tanks, were employed for the construction of aircraft. Ruston & Proctor received an initial order for 100 BE2c’s in January 1915, later responsible for the manufacture of 300 airframes for the Sopwith ½ Strutter, a light weight fighting scout.

With a contract to build the Sopwith Gunbus in 1915, the bulk of Robey & Co’s output was between 1915-18 to build the short 184 Sea Plane. With a workforce of approx 5,000, Clayton & Shuttleworth were the largest manufacturer with a factory including the Titanic Works, covering about 100 acres. All of these firms recruited in the Deepings for men with engineering skills and it is believed that quite a few went to Lincoln to build tanks and aeroplanes.

The military requisitioned 2,500 acres of land at Cranwell to train the newly recruited pilots, needed to fly these planes. Later recruited from the army, initially volunteers were sought, one of which was Donald Rooksby, husband of Agnes nee Mulligan of the Waterton Arms, Deeping St James.

Frognall catered for all types of aircraft and pilots of different nationalities. Posters were put up locally so that residents could distinguish between German aircraft and our own. For residents, the airfield created quite a spectacle and for pilots it was a favourite stop as residents would supply refreshments for the brave airmen.

In September 1916, the headquarters of No. 38 Squadron was formed at Melton Mowbray and by 1st October, ‘C’ flight was resident at the newly constructed Fight Station near Buckminster and at Leadenham. The busy airfield at Frognall was the main refuelling base for these Home Defence Squadrons, whose task was to patrol the East Coast using B.E.2s and F.E.bs to stop the Zeppelins reaching the industrial sites of the Midlands. The first Commanding Officer of 38 Squadron was a Captain A.T Harris who was better known in World War Two as Air Marshall of the RAF, Bomber Harris. In 1917 tragedy struck; the Peterborough Advertiser reported; ‘A fatal accident occurred in South Lincolnshire to one of our airmen on Friday morning. He had been flying over the fen district for some time and when in Crowland some minutes before the accident he was observed flying around the town, sometimes so low to nearly catch the buildings. He eventually got down in Snowdens field and then rose again but only to a little height, when the machine went sideways, dived down in the Church Field, running by the side of the Churchyard. The machine was smashed and the airman (Lieutenant Robertson a Canadian in the RFC) still breathed but was unconscious and badly injured. He died in a few minutes.’

By December 1916 there were 11 Home Defence Squadrons and by the end of the war 14 RAF Squadrons were established, the RFC becoming the Royal Air Force on 1st April 1918. The Frognall airstrip was closed in 1919 and returned to farm land.