The footnote at the end of my last blog post about the history behind the blue uniform that we in the RAF wear led to a short Twitter conversation about a few bits of history and traditions we have.
One of those is why RAF bases are officially called Stations. For example Royal Air Force Station Benson.
Why are they called Stations and not Bases, or even Barracks?
The history - as far as I know it - behind this is this:
Lord Trenchard (the so called "Father of the RAF") spent his early years in the Army posted in India, where the military bases were often called Stations simply because they were alongside railway stations.
When he returned to the UK and set about the establishment of the Royal Air Force in 1918 he wanted to make the newly named RAF bases clearly different from the Army and Navy bases...and so he remembered his time in India and the Stations he had been posted to.
And so Royal Air Force Stations were established...
By they way, if you have any more questions then please ask away!
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