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The story of RAF East Fortune stretches back before the foundation of the Royal Air Force in 1918. Located about 30km (20 miles) east of Edinburgh, it was originally established by the Royal Naval Air Service in 1915. In these early years, it was primarily associated with fighter planes and airships, and in July 1919 it famously witnessed the launch of the first-ever return flight across the Atlantic, in which the British airship R.34 (measuring 634ft/193m long, it was nicknamed ‘Tiny’) travelled to Mineola on Long Island, New York, in just over 108 hours. In the interwar years, the site served as a tuberculosis sanatorium, but in 1940 it was requisitioned, reopened, and expanded for military use, initially training night fighters and later anti-shipping activity by RAF Coastal Command. The airfield was allocated to the United States Air Force during the Cold War, but it then returned mainly to medical purposes, other than a brief episode in 1961 when it hosted both civilian and military flights while nearby Turnhouse Aerodrome (now Edinburgh Airport) was undergoing building works. The site gained a new lease of life in 1975, when it opened to the public as a museum. Today, the National Museum of Flight occupies the area of the airfield’s Technical Site, incorporating a number of historic buildings and runways. Part of National Museums Scotland, its displays trace the history of aviation from the First World War to the present day – and, complementing this wide perspective, activities linked to this latest phase of the site’s use have given illuminating insights into its own aerial past.
In 1987-1988, works to reclad Hangar 4 unearthed artefacts including RAF-stamped crockery and various glass bottles. These were stored at the site’s archive, and over the past three years they have been joined by many more objects recovered and documented by museum staff during surveys of areas where a lack of grass coverage allows good visibility of the ground. These non-systematic but targeted investigations have examined stripes of land, 30cm to 90cm (1-3ft) in width, around most of the complex’s buildings, as well as other zones where the original ground surface is preserved, such as in and around the Bulk Petrol Installations. Each of these areas has been inspected several times, using a selective strategy of collecting only highly diagnostic finds, and we estimate that around 500m2 out of the site’s total 13ha (32 acres) has been surveyed to-date. Here we will examine the earlier excavated artefacts and more-recent surface finds, discussing how they enrich our knowledge of this airfield and the personnel based there during the Second World War.
Populating the past
Thousands of personnel from different Allied countries served at East Fortune or passed through the airfield on training courses, and many left personal items behind for us to find. Tangible traces of these individuals include a metal military water bottle, uniform and shirt buttons, buckles, and coins including a George V shilling minted between 1927 and 1936 and a George VI florin dated 1942. There was a more intimate artefact in the form of a small, cross-shaped pendant, while a tantalising echo of a specific person came from the metal clip from a pair of braces bearing the engraved initials of its owner (W.H.B.) and the year 1938. Such finds help us to flesh out the type of service personnel stationed at RAF East Fortune, as engraved brace clips most often belonged to RAF officers. Other lettering seen on the backs of shirt buttons represented various manufacturer marks, including ‘CHENEY B’HAM’ between two crosses; ‘SHIRLEY Ltd B’HAM’; ‘W.H.H(ASELER) B’HAM’; ‘HILLS W.C.L.’; and ‘FIRMIN LONDON’.
Moving from the personal to the practical, we have also found relics of the various working tasks that were performed at the Technical Site beyond repairing and maintaining aircraft. This is where refuelling vehicles filled up ahead of supplying petrol to planes across the airfield, and at the Bulk Petrol Installation (which can still be seen in the middle of the museum site) several lead security seals have been discovered. Some bear stamps like ‘Esso’ or ‘POOL’, and the latter is particularly worthy of mention in terms of wartime history. It represents a step in 1939 when the British Oil Control Board took over the production and distribution of petrol, issuing a standardised, medium-quality fuel in place of branded types. Known as Pool Petrol, it was strictly rationed for private use, and restrictions remained until 1953. Another artefact associated with a household name was a General Electric company Bakelite toggle light switch, made in Birmingham in the 1930s. It reminds us of the 24-hour operation of this airfield, which was designed for training pilots at night. Meanwhile, glass and stoneware inkwells highlight the paperwork necessary to keep the site running.
Daily life
What of the day-to-day experiences of the people associated with the airfield? Crockery, glass bottles, and cutlery attest that food and drink were regularly consumed at the Technical Site, speaking of personnel eating where they worked in order to keep the aircraft maintained and in flying condition. Pots stamped with the RAF crest are among the most notable finds, though the decorated ceramic sherds dominated by blue-and-white floral motifs and eastern scenes – some of which belong to the ‘blue willow’ pattern – reveal that not all of the crockery used on site was so utilitarian. Similar contrasts come from a copper fork engraved with the acronym NAAFI (Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes), and the plastic handle of a small teaspoon shaped like a robed figure, known as an apostle spoon (albeit an inexpensive one: they are more commonly silver or silver-plated). As for what people were consuming, among the bottles with embossed writing we find both local products (such as ales and dairy products from Haddington and Dunbar) and imports including bottles from Poland, possibly indicating the presence of personnel from that nation.
Personal hygiene and self-care were also part of the daily routine of Technical Site personnel, and we have found the upper part of a toothpaste tube with the word ‘Macleans’ – a brand that became part of the military kit-bag during the Second World War – as well as medicine and perfume bottles in blue cobalt. These surveys have also produced a miscellany of objects including bullet cases, skeleton keys and lock faceplates, a ‘Lucas’ car battery filler plug, an AC spark plug, plastic buttons, a small screwdriver, a T-shaped bolt with a stamped ID number and a small lightbulb (both probably from an aircraft), a Victorian iron nail, a section of clay pipe stem, an ash rake, the outlet valve of a British military gas mask, and a light component from a telephone switchboard.
To help share the finds more widely, as well as writing this note, we gave an induction day talk in March 2025 to a large number of museum volunteers – dedicated individuals who represent the local community and act as valued guardians and promoters of this site and its history. Today, Wartime Archaeology is a well-established discipline, which in the UK is recognised both institutionally and academically, and whose genesis is entwined with the field of aviation. The finds described here provide vivid evidence of the people who worked at the RAF East Fortune airfield more than 80 years ago, offering glimpses into lives and activities that are now on the very cusp of living memory.
Dr Matteo Randazzo is a finds specialist with a PhD in Archaeology from the University of Edinburgh. His main expertise is the medieval Mediterranean, but his research interests span Roman Britain to Second World War archaeology.
Olivia Jones studied Social Policy and Social and Economic History at the University of Edinburgh; her dissertation was on the economic and technological impacts of the de Havilland Comet. She worked at the National Museum of Flight 2023-2026, and is now training as a aeronautical engineer.
All Images: courtesy of Dr Matteo Randazzo
