36 | FLIGHTPATH
The memorial at Stow Maries commemorates the ten personnel of 37 squadron who lost
their lives flying from the squadron’s three bases in Essex during the Great War.Along with many of
the the buidings, the
aerodrome’s original
water tower remains
as a landmark.
tional Great War aerodrome. A temporary
hangar has been built, but the plan is to con-
struct a number of more permanent struc-
tures of period appearance to house the air-
craft to be based at Stow Maries.
In 2010 a memorial was unveiled at the
site, listing the names of the ten servicemen
who died whilst on active service at Stow
Maries from 1916-1919. A wooden building,
which had been used as a village hall in
Drinkstone, Suffolk, for many years, was
dismantled and moved to the site in 2011. It
had originally been constructed as the Of-
ficer’s Mess at nearby Great Ashfield airfield
during the Great War, and was presented to
the village after the War as a memorial.
It is intended that some of the buildings be
restored for accommodation use, and then
Stow Maries can then be used for education-
al purposes, focusing both on Great War
aviation, and on conservation and local wild-
life. Workshops have been refurbished, and
are being used to restore period vehicles to
be exhibited at the site. Several events and
fly-ins are now held at the aerodrome each
year. A support organisation, the Friends of
Stow Maries Aerodrome (FOSMA) exists to
“support the fulfilment of the aims of Stow
Maries Aerodrome in all ways possible.”
In addition to the work being carried out
on the airfield itself, the World War One Avi-
ation Heritage Trust (WAHT) has been
formed “to provide an enduring flying col-
lection of World War I Allied and German
aircraft based in the UK flying from herit-
age sites like Stow Maries Great War Aero-
drome.” Their aim is to bring an authentic
reproduction aircraft to the UK every year
from 2014 to 2018 (each of the five years of
the centenary of the Great War) to be oper-
ated in events and flypasts to educate the
public in the evolution of aircrew, technolo-
gy and tactics during the Great War, and
eventually to offer apprenticeships in vin-
tage aircraft preservation, restoration and
reproduction. The intention is to raise
funding to present an aircraft a year to the
nation, much the way in which presentation
aircraft were funded at the time. Addition-
ally, and marking a notable difference to the
days of the airfield’s foundation, German
collector Oliver Wulff has also agreed to
base his aircraft at Stow Maries. These in-
clude a Fokker D VII currently under con-
struction, and an S.E.5a which was built in
the US and is currently in Germany.
The WAHT has also allied itself with The
Vintage Aviator Ltd. (TVAL) in New Zea-
land, which has resulted in a pair of newly-
constructed authentic B.E.2e replicas arriv-
ing in the UK in June. One of these, for
Oliver Wulff, is painted as A2943 of 7 squad-
ron as flown by Captain Horace Webb Bo-
wen. The other is painted as A2767 of 37
squadron, based at Stow Maries in 1917.
These two aircraft were re-assembled at OldWarden in mid-June, where they will be
based until a suitable hangar has been built
at Stow Maries.
Gene DeMarco, production manager at
TVAL (see Flightpath Vol.26 No.1) travelled
over from New Zealand to supervise the re-
assembly of the B.E.2es and undertake the
test flying and pilot conversions. They flew
across to Stow Maries on 28th June to ap-
pear at the Armed Forces Day event there,
the first time a pair of B.E.2s had flown over
the site in 95 years. The following day they
were the stars of the Shutleworth Military
Pageant at Old Warden, their newly-built,
authentic RAF.1a V8 engines providing a
sound unheard in the UK for many years.
These tandem projects, the restoration
of Stow Maries and the provision of authen-
tic period aircraft to operate there, whilst
ambitious in their scope, are making very
real progress. I was hugely impressed with
the work being done there on a recent visit,
and will be following their progress closely
over the coming months as they gear up to
partake fully in the Great War centennial
commemoration.Online Links
http://www.stowmaries.org.uk
http://www.fosma.co.uk
http://www.rsperformance.co.uk
ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk
thevintageaviator.co.nz