Shrewsbury landing for token marking birth of RAF
A token bigger than the Olympic relay torch will be "landing" in Shrewsbury at the weekend as part of a charity's project marking the centenary of the foundation of the Royal Air Force.
It is being handed over to Shrewsbury & District branch of the Royal Air Forces Association (RAFA) on Saturday, July 28.
The token is one of three being taken by relay around 85 RAFA branches and local RAF units in the association's Wales, Midland, and South Western areas.
Each of the tokens is symbolic of a particular aspect of the birth of the service, with that arriving in Shrewsbury representing the Royal Flying Corps, which was merged with the Royal Naval Air Service in 1918 to create the RAF.
RAFA is a charity which provides welfare support to RAF members, veterans of the service, and their families.
The tokens started their journey in Gloucester at the RAFA area conference on March 25. Once they have travelled through their respective areas, covering hundreds of miles, they will finally be united at the Birmingham Military Tattoo on November 24, where they will be put together using a scale Spitfire model as the focal point.
During the tour of the tokens around the area’s branches the association is trying to raise funds towards buying two Spitfires at World War Two prices of £5,000, which would again be represented by the Spitfire at the tattoo. Any money raised will be added to the annual RAFA Wings Appeal total.
Wales area's token represents the RNAS, while South Western area has charge of the token representing Marshal of the Royal Air Force Lord Trenchard, who was known as the father of the RAF.
Paul Sharp, chairman of Shrewsbury RAFA, said: "At Shrewsbury we will be receiving the token representing the Royal Flying Corps. It is being transported to Shrewsbury by Wellington and Wrekin branch accompanied by representatives of 2379 Dawley Squadron Air Training Corps.
"Once at Shrewsbury the cadets will hand over the token to members of 1119 Shrewsbury Squadron ATC who will accept it on behalf of the Shrewsbury & District branch.
"The handover is scheduled to take place in The Square at 1pm where we will be joined by the Mayor of Shrewsbury, Councillor Peter Nutting, representatives of RAF Shawbury and the President of the Shrewsbury & District branch. Air Commodore (Retd) John J Burke."
The Shrewsbury branch will have the RFC token under its wing for one week before it is passed in turn to the Ellesmere branch on August 5 on the next stage of its tour.
