The Sandbag Times Issue No: 48

WRAF Memorial Fundraising
The Women’s Royal Air Force (WRAF) was
formed in 1918 at the same time as the RAF
and originally disbanded in 1920. After the formation
of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force
(WAAF) in 1939 at the start of the Second
World War and the realisation that women had
a very definite, permanent and integral place
in the Royal Air Force, the WAAF was renamed
the WRAF in 1949. Initially employed in noncombatant
roles, though this did change during
the 1980s, WRAFs were stationed in many
far flung places such as Singapore, Burma,
Iraq and Aden serving alongside their male
counterparts during the many post-war conflicts.
The WRAF remained in existence until
1994 when it was formally merged with the
RAF.
Along with many other members of the WRAF
Branch of RAFA, ex-WRAF Cpl Sylvia Walker
attended the RAFA Centenary Service at the
National Memorial Arboretum (NMA) on
Sunday 13th May 2018. After the service she
and her husband ex-Cpl Martin Walker spent
the rest of the afternoon, as did many of the
guests, wandering around the grounds looking
at all the memorials and paying their
respects. Dismayed that although there was a
WAAF Memorial, she was unable to locate a
WRAF Memorial, particularly as this is the
Centenary of the WRAF as well as the RAF. As
an ex-WRAF herself, she felt this was more
than a little unjust and began asking questions
about a WRAF Memorial and where one may
be located, if there wasn’t one at the NMA.
Quite quickly it was agreed that although there
were various trees planted in a few locations
around the UK in memory of the WRAF or individual
WRAFs, there didn’t appear to be an
actual memorial anywhere.
Several phone calls later and after advice from
the NMA on costs, etc the ex-WRAFs quickly
sprung in to action and now have a FaceBook
group dedicated to fundraising for the WRAF
Memorial. After gaining the support from the
RAF and RAF connected charities including
Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir
Stephen Hillier, RAFA President, Air
Marshall Sir Baz North and the Controller
of the RAF Benevolent Fund, Air Vice
Marshall David Murray, fundraising
began in earnest and
approximately £4,000 has been
raised, some by personal donations
and some by fundraising efforts by
the girls. To ensure that there is complete
transparency, a committee of both
ex-WRAFs and serving women has been
formed and this includes both Officers and
other ranks. Something to note that these
fundraising efforts are completely separate to
both the WRAF Branch of RAFA and the
WAAF/WRAF/RAF(W) Association, and
although members of the committee and the
entire fundraising team are actually members
of both the Branch and the Association, some
are not. This is a completely separate venture.
There is still a long way to go as the NMA
advice is that generally speaking (and a lot will
depend on exactly what design is chosen, but
that’s a long way down the line at this stage),
approximately £30,000 is required for the
design and siting of a suitable memorial.
Anyone wishing to donate can do either by a
direct donation to the bank account or by
PayPal, details of which are below:
PayPal link for donations
https://www.paypal.com/cgibin/webscr?cmd=_sxclick&hosted_button_id=XBSS4M7FLE7L4
If you wish to contact a committee member for
more information, or details of the bank
account to send a donation, or to help with
fundraising, please email on
wrafmemorialfund@gmail.com."
WRAF
The SBT is proud to present a short story from one of our readers
Do Nothing
By AJ Vosse
“Sergeant, what exactly is that soldier
doing?”
“Nothing, Sir…”
He’d expected the startled expression.
Here in the military, men aren’t supposed
to do nothing, so when an officer
sees nothing being done it spells trouble.
The sergeant purposely allowed the
pause to drag on, allowing the tension
to mount until it became almost tangible.
He allowed the oppressively hot,
humid, heavy air to add to the drama of
the moment, as if the smoke of 20 cannons
expelling their toxic vapour suffocated
any thoughts of reality.
Sergeant Ross glanced at the rosy
cheeked man beside him. He’d planned
the familiarisation walk to end in the
tree’s shade about 15 meters from
where the young soldier was sitting. The
soldier was dressed only in a pair of
shorts and a stained, sun parched shirt.
Nondescript, hardly visible against the
background of the surrounding thicket
of woodland, part of the land.
The sergeant’s thoughts returned to the
new arrival. The uniform crisp, only
months old, unlike his faded combat
dress that although neat, was well past
their best days. Damn, why can’t they
stop sending him these kids? Soldiering
is not for babies.
They’re making them younger each
year, he mused. He reflected on the
www.sandbagtimes.co.uk 33 |