It’s a poignant dedication to one of the most important historic aviation sites in Britain: RAF Biggin Hill Museum & Chapel. Tom Baker went to the Kent facility to see what has changed since our last visit
At 10.20am, on November 11, 1918, radio transmitters across France broadcast an official communiqué. British Prime Minister David Lloyd George, heard only coarsely over the sound of grainy static, proudly announced the Armistice of Compiègne. World War One, after 52 exhausting months of campaigning, would end at the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month. As muted reactions swept across the Front, dominated by an atmosphere of silent emptiness, a wireless operator of 141 Squadron excitedly tuned his receiver to detect an incoming transmission from a station within the Eiffel Tower. Picking up Lloyd George’s message, he hastily forwarded the communication on. Shortly thereafter, the church bells of Westerham and Cudham, both in Kent, were the first in England to peal illustrious chimes of triumph.
