Description:Princess Alice, Duchess of Gloucester is pictured receiving a bouquet of flowers during her visit to RAF Stafford. This photograph was taken by Stafford photographer Tony Boydon. If you recognise anyone else in this view please contact us.
The Duchess travelled extensively to perform her royal duties and over the years she became head of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) in 1939 as Senior Controller, changed to Air Commandant in 1940, appointed Air Chief Commandant in 1943, as director until 1944 and promoted to Air Chief Marshal in the Royal Air Force in 1990. The Duchess was also Colonel-in-Chief or Deputy Colonel-in-Chief of several Regiments in the Army and served as Deputy to Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother as Commandant-in-Chief of the Nursing Corps.
RAF Stafford was formed 1 December 1939 following the purchase by the Treasury of 362 acres of land near Stafford. The main site was at Beaconside and originally known as No. 16 Maintenance Unit or more often as 16 MU and there were outlying sites around the area. The Unit's motto was ‘Instumenta Fundamenta’ which translates as 'Supplies are the Foundations'.
Apart from helicopters, the site was a non-flying base which formed part of a large and complex RAF logistics organisation. There were many enormous stores and warehouse buildings with facilities for the maintenance of equipment and storage of parts needed by the Ministry of Defence in order to keep front line aircraft flying worldwide. Later the site also became involved in supporting military aircraft for NATO partners in Europe and for India and New Zealand.
The site celebrated 50 years in 1989 and at that time stood on 670 acres with seven dispersed sites. There were around 1600 personnel of which half were service and half civilian. The stores held around 617,000 different items of equipment including airframes, aero-engine spares, complete engines (e.g. for the Tornado), guided missile spares, right down to nuts and bolts.
On 1 April 1999 the name 16 MU disappeared and two new agencies were created with the site renamed as RAF Stafford and DSDC (Defence Storage and Distribution Centre) Stafford, subsequently known as DSDC North. In later years, due to Government policy, there were many changes for RAF Stafford and airmen and airwomen began to relocate to other sites. On 17 December 2004 the Mountain Rescue Team relocated to RAF Valley after 42 years with RAF Stafford. During September 2005 DSDC North was closed and on 31 March 2006 RAF Stafford closed after 67 years.
The site was given a new future by the Ministry of Defence who required the Army to occupy the base and it was given a new name: Beacon Barracks, MOD Stafford. A major redevelopment of the site took place with new buildings and facilities for troops transferring to Stafford. Additionally a new estate of over 340 houses was created on one of the former Storage sites opposite to the Beacon Barracks main entrance.