The History Of The RAFLing Association

The idea to form the RAFling Association came to Bryon Kingston and Neil Pickles in 1996 when they met at a ceremony marking the closure of Royal Air Force North Luffenham in Oakham. North Luffenham had been the location of the Joint Services Language School (JSLS) for over thirty years from 1964.

The school had had many previous locations and, prior to North Luffenham, had been located at RAF Tangmere which was where the two friends had initially met on commencement of a Russian language course in February 1961. On completion of the course Neil was posted to RAF Gatow in West Berlin while Bryon went to RAF Pergamos in Cyprus followed by a subsequent tour also at Gatow in Berlin. Neil left the RAF in 1966, Bryon left ten years later in 1976.

They were disappointed to discover that of the hundreds of personnel who trained as linguists in the RAF from the 1950s there were only a few who attended the ceremony so later over a few beers in the Wheatsheaf Inn in Edith Weston they decided to try to rectify the situation. They had kept in touch with one or two others including Dave Haysom who had been on the same Russian course and who had also been posted to Berlin and they enlisted his help in their project. Dave has spent many years in Berlin and, on completion of his career in the RAF, had taken up a post with Rank Xerox and had settled in Hamburg.

The trio contacted those with whom they had kept in touch, who, in turn, had maintained contact with others and eventually in September 1998, an inaugural reunion was held in Leicester where Neil lived.

Accommodation was at the Post House with a Gala Dinner Dance taking place at the Leicester City Football Club Banqueting Suite. This first reunion was attended by over a hundred people and was a resounding success. As a result of that successful reunion and due to persistent demands from all and sundry it was decided to hold a Millennium Reunion in Berlin , the city so well known and loved by most of the linguists.

Following the reunification of Germany in 1989, all British troops had left Berlin and Royal Air Force Gatow was now a Luftwaffe base named General Steinhoff Kaserne. Oberst Helmut Becker the Commandant welcomed RAFling members with open arms and put the full facilities of the camp at the Association's disposal.

This included a 'Gala Dinner' at the Airbridge Club which brought back many happy memories as the Airbridge was where most of the lingusts had spent their formative drinking years. This made the reunion a very special occasion. Further successful reunions have since been held in in Leicester, Berlin, York and Spain and the next one is planned for September in Buxton.

Following that initial reunion Bryon believed it appropriate that an Association be established formally so that the hard work which had resulted in the renewal of old friendships and acquaintances should not have been in vain and in September 2000, the Royal Air Force Linguists' Association (RAFling) was born. Jock Dempster was invited to become President and, happily, he accepted. Neil became Chairman, Dave Vice-Chairman and Bryon became Secretary. Naturally there have since been changes in the committee and the latest members' details can be seen on the 'Contact Us' page.

Three times per annum, the Association publishes a quarterly magazine, the RAFling News and Dave Haysom distributes a monthly electronic RAFling Bulletin which is also printed and sent on to those who have not yet joined the digital age.

As the ratio of linguists posted to RAF Gatow as against other posts was in the region of 5 to 1, the association was intended primarily to renew and maintain friendship between Russian, German, Czech and Polish linguists who served there during in the 'Cold War' decades from 1948 until 1989 as they were by far the majority. However Since its inception it has welcomed as members, Army and Navy linguists and also those Chinese linguists from various arms of the services who were mostly employed in Hong Kong. The current membership stands at around 130.

The Rafling Association has carried out a successful programme of commemorating the existence of the various locations of the Joint Services Language Schools by the mounting of suitable plaques. The first of these was at Tangmere in July, 2003 which was very well attended. The next, at the DCLI Museum in Bodmin was unveiled on 14th June, 2004 followed by Crail later that same year. In 2006 a plaques was unveiled at Pucklechurch and another at Coulsdon in 2007. In 2008, another plaque was unveiled at The Thomas Tallis school (formerly RAF Kidbrooke). All of these dedications were covered by the local press and generated a lot of interest in the association. The final plaque was unveiled on June 26th in 2009 on the site of the old Royal Air Force base at Wythall, although there is a possibility that one more plaque will be unveiled at The School For Oriental and African Studies in London at some future date.

We also successfully raised funds for the purchase of a Guide Dog for the Blind and our dog, appropriately name Raffles, has now been placed with a worthy owner.

While we have a good base of members, we are aware that in order to maintain the association we must look forward as well as backward and are always ready to welcome anyone who has been involved not only in language training but also those in the ancilliary trades as members.