Many old RAF Stations have resident Ghosts: some well known like the Middleton Ghost in the St.George Hotel (former Officers' Mess) at Teeside Airport, others less so. Our Ghost at Leeming was in the latter category.
The story was current when I arrived there in Summer '67, and our Ghost continued to put in appearances, at irregular intervals, all the time (but progressively less frequently) until I left at the end of '72. Any information from the readership about subsequent sightings would be welcome on this Thread.
There was no internet or Google to refer to in those days, and we are solely dependent on oral testimony . The story, as I heard it, runs as follows: Some time after the war, there was a training accident at Leeming. The aircraft was supposed to be one of the Beaufighter family (Buckmaster, as I recall). Pilot and Nav were killed. (No other details).
One late afternoon in the early days of the JP era, the aircraft were being put away in No.1 Hangar at close of play. It was dusk, but far from dark. An airman busy about his duties passed a figure sitting nonchalently on the wing of one of the parked JPs. It was wearing the flying overalls of the time. "Have you seen Flt.Lt. So-and-so ?" asked the figure. "No, sir", answered the airman (not knowing - or much caring - who Flt.Lt. So-and-so might be). He took a step or two more, then curiousity impelled him to look back. The figure had vanished.
He looked swiftly round the hangar. The light was quite enough to see by. But he was quite alone there. He later recalled that he felt in no way alarmed, only puzzled by the strange occurrence. He decided to keep quiet about it (he wouldn't be believed, in any case, and it would only attract mockery).
But in the following weeks, at irregular intervals, other airmen had similar experiences and the story came to light. The tales had many features in common. The apparition was always in, or close around, No.1 Hangar. It only appeared about the same time of day - late afternoon to early evening. The question was always the same. He was always in flying kit. He only appeared to one man at a time, even though others might be quite close, they saw and heard nothing.
He was by no means a fightening or menacing Ghost, quite the opposite. He seemed affable, but with an anxious, distracted air, as if his thoughts were far elsewhere. Soon there was a renewed interest in the affair after a sudden variation of the pattern one winter evening. A crew bus was travelling through the wide space between 2 and 3 Hangars, again about the end of the flying day. The driver was moving about 20 mph towards 2 Hangar, when a figure appeared right in front of his bus. He braked hard, but the figure vanished under the front wheels. He felt no bump.
He stopped and jumped out to see whom he'd run over, but there was nobody there. Plenty of people had been passing by off work, and some had been attracted by the scream of brakes. But none of them had seen the stranger, either before or after the supposed "impact". The driver got back and drove on, bewildered.
Of course, from time to time, "ghost-busting" groups of two or three set out, pot-valiant, from the Messes and NAAFI after dinner to confront this "ghost". But when they walked away from the bright lights, through the gloomy technical sections of the camp, to the now deserted, unlit black hangars standing like huge, menacing cathedrals in the darkness, their courage failed. There had been loose talk about drawing the hangar side door keys to have a scout round inside, but now that didn't seem a good idea at all. They turned tail and walked back. And that's about it.
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I've been rummaging about a bit. It seems that No. 228 OCU operated from Leemimg '47-'61:
<RAF 228 OCU Losses & Ejections - Ejection History>
www.ejection-history.org.uk/...228_OCU/SQUADRON_228ocu.htm
<16th January 1951
RAF Brigand B1 RH770 228 OCU struck a tree near Timworth Suffolk./ Pilot Flying Officer P F Keeling. /Other crew abondoned (sic) the aircraft safely>
That is the only reference I can find that has a possible connection with the detail in the "legend". And it does not specify that F/O Keeling was killed (although that is implied). And there would be a third man in a normal Brigand crew. Nevertheless "Brigand" was such a "near miss" for "Buckmaster", that the part-coinicidence is striking. Perhaps Keeling (the pilot)
was killed, and it is he who, like Captain Hendrik Van der Decken ("The Flying Dutchman") is fated to stay near Leeming No.1 Hangar, waiting for his Nav (?) for all eternity ! Trust a Nav not to be able to find his Captain !
(Only joking, some of my best friends have been Navs).
Another search led to:
<phantom aircraft, ghostly airmen, and other spirits of aviation>
www.paranormaldatabase.com/aviation/pages/avdata.php?...2...
<CrewLocation: Leeming - Former Airfield.....(???)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onwards
Further Comments: The crew from a bomber have been seen walking together here, and when not seen they have been heard laughing and joking.>
This has no obvious connection with our man - except that there probably were
two survivors in his case.
Had a wander across from the Tower around there at odd times during the night when all was quiet and we had no traffic, but never saw or heard anything out of the ordinary.
Evenin', all.
Danny42C.
"From ghosties, ghoulies and long-leggity beasties, Good Lord deliver us".