My father's death in a crash was August 12th 1960 and at that time we lived in a house in the married quarters. I was seven at the time and it was the school holidays so my brothers and I were playing outside. The crash, shortly after take off, occurred at another station at around 1000am, which was probably a good thing as we lived opposite the runway.
From what my mother told me, about midday the Squadron Leader came round along with the wife of the pilot. We children were parked with our next door neighbours as the three of them went off to tell the other wives. We eventually left the base in early November, so about three months. She never mentioned any pressure to leave but of course that doesn't mean there wasn't any.
One good thing my parents had done was subscribed to the RAF Benevolent Fund. My mother had found a house costing £4,800 but only had the money for half of that. The fund gave her the rest in an interest free loan with no fixed date to pay back (she did of course pay it back later). In those days it was very hard for single women to get mortgages even if they had a job. Indeed single mothers were still not looked at well by some whatever the reasons.
I shall always be grateful to the RAF Benevolent Fund for the help they gave my mother.