Isle of Grain
ISLE of GRAIN see also PORT VICTORIA
ISLE of GRAIN: Military landplane station known as GRAIN
(In WW1 a co-located aerodrome with the seaplane Station PORT VICTORIA)
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
Military users: RNAS (Royal Naval Air Service) Coastal Air Station since 1912 through to WW1 and beyond.
(Short Type 74, Short S 80 etc & Sopwiths)
Civil users: Short Bros and Fairey Aviation (Manufacturing and repair?)
Location: On the SW banks of the Isle of Grain just W of the modern Thamesport container terminal. Roughly 8 to 9nm NE of Chatham
Period of operation: 1912 (some say 1913) to 1924 only? The Aircraft Experimental Unit moved to FELIXSTOWE in 1924
Combined site area: 90 acres
Note. In September 2021, Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' very kindly provided these maps and pictures.
NOTES: It is said that in 1913 the Royal Navy established seaplane bases here and at GREAT YARMOUTH (NORFOLK), FELIXSTOWE (SUFFOLK) and GOSPORT & CALSHOT (HAMPSHIRE)
On 20/3/15 Flight Commander Henry Meyrick was awarded Pilot Certificate No.1129 flying a Short Hydro-Aeroplane here. Or was this actually at PORT VICTORIA?
In his lovely autobiography ‘To the Ends of the Air’ G E Livstock gives a graphic account of being based here and makes an interesting comment. “The aircraft consisted of a weird assortment of very elderly Short and Sopwith seaplanes and one or two landplanes, (this is where my interest sparked up of course), which flew from a tiny Landing Ground on the marshes behind the sheds.” It is also, I think, interesting to hear about his perception of what then constituted an elderly aeroplane? Possibly three or four years old at best?
Group Captain Livstock mentions doing some flying on the Short S 80, (called the Nile Seaplane), a type specially built for Frank McClean to fly up the Nile from Alexandria to Khartoum in early 1914. On the outbreak of war he gave it to the RNAS delivering it himself to RNAS ISLE of GRAIN. Livstock goes on to say, remarking on the amount of wires involved in holding this type together; “….that the way to find out if the rigging was correct was to put a bird inside: If it was able to escape, there must be a wire missing.”
It appears that two aircraft types were actually designed and built here, (presumably by RNAS personel?), and named the Eastchurch Kitten and Grain Kitten
On the 20th of August 1920 the first all-metal stressed skin aircraft, the Short Silver Streak G-EARQ flew from Grain.
In 1922, (possibly earlier), Fairey Aviation used a Fairey III, (modified to be a three-seat amphibian), G-EALQ for communication duties between Hamble and the Isle of Grain.
The last flights were reputed to be in December 1922.
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