Campaign for RNAS memorial

7 January 2025

Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, Dsc (17 July 1892 – 7 August 1917), The First Pilot To Land — Squadron Commander Edwin Harris Dunning, DSC (17 July 1892 – 7 August 1917), the first pilot to land an aircraft on a moving ship.

A new memorial aims to honour the pioneers of naval aviation who laid the foundations for almost every aspect of war in the skies and operating aircraft at sea. Although the Royal Naval Air Service is remembered with displays and galleries at the Fleet Air Arm Museum and memorial church in Yeovilton — it records the names of 897 RNAS personnel, mostly aircrew, killed between 1914 and 1918 — there is no dedicated memorial for the Great War pioneers, only one for the Fleet Air Arm (‘Daedalus’ in London’s Whitehall) which was not formed until the late 1930s.

The initiative, supported by the Royal Air Force and the National Museum of the Royal Navy, aims to raise £325,000 to install a memorial at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, England.

The proposed monument — titled ‘In the teeth of the wind’ — will feature bronze figures of a pilot, his mechanic and the airman’s dog (a frequent companion at WW1 airfields). They stand in front of a stone and bronze representation of a biplane, with the RNAS cap badge, a short description and an artist’s impression of Great War naval air operations on the rear.

Maquette Of The Proposed Monument — Maquette of the proposed monument.

Project leader is Major General David Rutherford-Jones: “Our aim is to have a memorial designed and constructed which is affordable, catches the eye, and which above all else captures the spirit of Naval flying in WW1, particularly the early years, when air operations were truly pioneering, stunningly dangerous, and delivered with extraordinary aplomb by the pilots.”