The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund | |
Established | 1919 |
---|---|
Founder | Hugh Trenchard, 1st Viscount Trenchard |
Type | Non-profit |
Legal status | Charity |
Controller | Chris Elliot |
Patron president | The Duke of Kent [1] |
Website | www.rafbf.org |
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is the Royal Air Force's leading welfare charity. It supports current and former members of the RAF, their partners and families, providing practical, emotional and financial support, whenever it is needed. The Fund is committed to getting members of the RAF Family through the toughest times, whatever life may send their way.
The Fund will consider any request for assistance, however big or small, providing a tailor-made approach to each individual situation. The RAF Benevolent Fund is unique in providing a range of support for serving RAF and their dependents, from support with childcare and relationship difficulties to help with retraining, injury, disability, illness and bereavement.
For former serving RAF members and their partners, the Fund offers financial grants to aid day-to-day living, cover one-off unexpected costs for practical items like a new fridge or replace a broken boiler, right through to renovating homes to help people live independently. The Fund can provide respite care, bereavement support or arrange telephone groups to help those isolated or lonely. [2]
The RAF Benevolent Fund is also the official guardian of the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London.
Lord Trenchard founded the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund in 1919, one year after the formation of the Royal Air Force. [3] In its first year, welfare expenditure was £919. The first welfare assistance the RAF Benevolent Fund gave was a shilling for a night's lodging to give the recipient a chance to seek work. Other early assistance included money to provide a beneficiary with tools of his trade and the repair of a pair of working boots. In 2010 the Fund spent over £23 million on welfare provision. [4]
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund was originally known as the Royal Air Force Memorial Fund as one of their charitable objects was to raise a memorial to airmen who died in the First World War. The Royal Air Force Memorial was completed in 1923. The monument, in Portland stone surmounted by a gilded eagle, can be seen on Victoria Embankment. [5]
Fundraising for the RAF Benevolent Fund occurred outside the UK as well. Prior to the United States entering World War II, Piper Aircraft Company produced 49, one for each state in the US plus another, Piper J-3 aircraft with RAF insignia and nicknamed the Flitfire, to be auctioned to benefit the Fund. On 29 April 1941 all 48 aircraft flew into La Guardia Field for a dedication and fundraising event which included Royal Navy officers from the battleship HMS Malaya, in New York for repairs, as honored guests. [6] [7]
The RAF Benevolent Fund was awarded a Royal Charter in 1999 and this was updated in 2008 by the addition of a new charitable object to permit them to work towards supporting the morale and well-being of the serving RAF. [8]
RAF Mount Pleasant is a Royal Air Force station in the British Overseas Territory of the Falkland Islands. The airfield goes by the motto of "Defend the right" and is part of the British Forces South Atlantic Islands (BFSAI). Home to between 1,000 and 2,000 British military personnel, it is about 33 miles (53 km) southwest of Stanley, the capital of the Falklands, on the island of East Falkland. The world's longest corridor, 2,600 feet (800 m) long, links the barracks, messes, and recreational and welfare areas of the station, and was nicknamed the "Death Star Corridor" by personnel due to its drab and foreboding ambiente, before it was re-designed, re-painted, and re-named "Millennium Corridor".
Royal Air Force Leeming or more simply RAF Leeming is a Royal Air Force station located near Leeming, North Yorkshire, England. It was opened in 1940 and was jointly used by the RAF and the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF). Between 1950 and 1991, it operated mostly as a training base with Quick Reaction Force (QRF) Panavia Tornado F3 fighters based there in the latter stages of the Cold War and into the early 21st century. Since 2006, it has become the home of the deployable RAF communications cadre and the home of No. 135 Expeditionary Air Wing.
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Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group and the United Kingdom Space Command.
Royal Air Force Honington or more simply RAF Honington is a Royal Air Force station located 6 mi (9.7 km) south of Thetford near Ixworth in Suffolk, England. It was used as a bomber station during the Second World War and through the Cold War, hosting Handley Page Victors and Hawker Siddeley (Blackburn) Buccaneers. RAF Honington has been the RAF Regiment depot since 1994.
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Number 33 Squadron of the Royal Air Force operates the Airbus Helicopters Puma HC.2 from RAF Benson, Oxfordshire.
SSAFA, the Armed Forces charity, the Soldiers', Sailors', and Airmen's Families Association, is a UK charity that provides lifelong support to serving men and women and veterans from the British Armed Forces and their families or dependents. Anyone who is currently serving or has ever served in the Royal Navy, British Army or Royal Air Force and their families, both regulars and reserves, is eligible for their help.
The Army Benevolent Fund, formerly ABF The Soldiers' Charity, is the national charity of the British Army. Since 1944, it has provided a lifetime of support to soldiers, veterans and their immediate families when they are in need.
The Royal Air Forces Association, also known as RAF Association or RAFA, is a British registered charity. It provides care and support to serving and retired members of the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth, and to their dependents.
The Royal Air Force Memorial is a military memorial on the Victoria Embankment in central London, dedicated to the memory of the casualties of the Royal Air Force in World War I. Unveiled in 1923, it became a Grade II listed structure in 1958, and was upgraded to Grade II* in 2018. It is considered to be the official memorial of the RAF and related services.
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Frederick "Freddie" Tees was a member of No. 617 Squadron of the Royal Air Force who took part in Operation Chastise, the "Dambusters" raid of 1943, as a rear gunner. The raid was the inspiration for the 1955 film The Dam Busters. He ended his days as a barber in Letchworth.
The Flitfire is a special edition of the Piper J-3 Cub that was used to raise funds to support the British war effort in World War II. The name "Flitfire" is a play on words referring to the RAF's most well-known fighter, the Supermarine Spitfire, which was and is a symbol of British resistance during the Battle of Britain.