Originally Posted by tmmorris
Agreed, Wellesbourne is much nicer now!
Perhaps in recognition of the part RAF Wellesbourne Mountford played in maintaining the freedom of this country from the Nazis?
Tim
Why not call it SMITHS FIELD then in recognition of Fred Smith who put and lost all his private money into Wellesbourne which also caused him to have a heart attack and die a broken and penniless man. Before Fred put his life savings into the airfield and it must be said, was used by a number of people, it was just another disused airfield.
20 years ago I found the the Smith Aviation stone plaque which was thrown up the back, outside the hangar which commemorated the Duke of Edinburgh re- opening the airfield so I dont suspect its present name remains due to any respect for anything or anybody, although its a nice thought not shared by Wolverhampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Northampton, Oxford, Birmingham etc . (possibly A better recognition would be a history of the airfields part in the war on display, if not already there, sadly missing from many ex WW2 airfields)
If it helps with the re-naming Fred was a Rolls Royce test development engineer during the war and said to have made a major contribution to the RR test programme.
Glad to here the airfield has changed but it was never the airfield that was the problem!