Probus Club of Bridlington members enjoy airship station talk

Members of the Probus Club of Bridlington met for their first gathering of the new season at the Expanse Hotel.

The club’s chairman, Tony Walker, introduced two new members Adriaan Lammers and Robin Taylor.

After the lunch, Roger Stanley presented his talk on Howden’s Airship Station.

Roger described its creation in 1916 as a Royal Naval Air Service station from which small airships called blimps would set out to escort and protect our merchant and Naval shipping along the east coast. The airship station was also used for the testing and crew training of the much larger rigid airships being developed in Britain for military purposes. In 1918 the station was passed over to the RAF for the further development of airships.

Unfortunately the rival to the R100, the Government designed and built R101, crashed in France on its maiden voyage to India when 48 passengers and crew perished.

All future work on airships in Britain was cancelled and the airship station at Howden was finally closed.

The next meeting will be the annual joint lunch with the Burlington Probus club at the Expanse Hotel on Thursday, October 14.

The speaker for this meeting will be Pauline Waslin who will be giving a talk on Burton Agnes Hall.

People can find out more about Probus Club of Bridlington at www.probusbridlington.weebly.com along with contact details.