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Commonwealth War Graves Commission or by the MOD) but also some private graves.
The only practical means of supplying the base with goods and equipment in the early years was to construct a railway link with the nearby mainline station at Sleaford, because the roads and farm tracks which led to Cranwell were so poor that they were practically impassable in the winter. The five-mile line, opened in 1917, was unused during the late 1920s though it was reo- pened during the Second World War. The line continued to provide the base with goods and a passenger service until 1956, when it suc- cumbed to the competition of improved roads and bus services and the track was lifted. The former Cranwell railway station building still exists, as the main guardroom at RAF Cranwell. Sleaford retains a working railway station, on the Peterborough to Lincoln line.
Birth of the Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) formally came into existence on 1 April 1918 with the merger of the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Ser- vice, being the first independent air force in the world. Instrumental in its creation was, some- what bizarrely it may seem at first sight, Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts, a former South African Boar military leader. After being part of the reconciliation process to repair Boar-British relations after the Boar War (1899 – 1902), he developed into an effective republican, yet pro- British, leader of regular troops in both South- West and East Africa. In 1917 he was invited by Lloyd George onto the war cabinet in July of that year and tasked with sorting out the air defences of British cities and producing a report on the feasibility of a combined air force. The report he produced, in simple terms, became the White Paper advocating and justifying the urgent need for an independent air force.
The birth of the new Service was not without its difficulties and controversies (the Cabinet, for example, was split on its desire to retain an independent air force, and continuing reserva- tions by the Navy during the early 1920s nearly brought the new Service to an end), and it was due primarily to two remarkable men during the early years of the RAF’s existence that it did not founder and that a new cadet college would eventually emerge. They were Sir Hugh (later Viscount) Trenchard and Sir Samuel Hoare (later Viscount Templewood).
Hugh Trenchard, known as the ‘Father of the Royal Air Force’, was originally an infantry officer who was commissioned in 1893. After learning to fly, he became second in command of the RFC Central Flying School at Uphavon. He then com- manded the RFC in France from 1915 to 1916, becoming the commander of the new independ- ent air force in France in 1918. Appointed Chief of the Air Staff in 1919 by Winston Churchill (then Secretary of State for War and Air), he spent the following decade securing the future of the new Royal Air Force.
Samuel Hoare was Secretary of State for Air dur- ing most of the 1920s and steadfastly sided with Trenchard on the importance of the RAF as an independent service, including the need for a dedicated officer college.
The careers of the two men intertwined for the seven years between 1922 and 1929. In basic terms, Hoare (the politician) turned Trenchard’s (the airman) ideas into words that the public and his fellow politicians would understand. As plans for the RAF College developed, the two corre- sponded frequently and were generally in agree- ment and both were very pleased by the early successes at Cranwell.
The creation of the new RAF coincided with post-war demobilisation and austerity budgets during 1919. At this time, the new RAF ranks were being decided upon, despite some opposi- tion from both the Royal Navy and Army. Trench- ard himself was regraded from Major General to Air Vice-Marshal, and then promoted shortly after to Air Marshal, and eventually to Marshal of the Royal Air Force. The new air force blue uniform was approved and adopted in July 1918, but it was not made compulsory until suf- ficient time had been given for the old RNAS and RFC uniforms to be worn out! New orders, regulations and administration were introduced,
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