Station Armoury Security
Station Armoury Security
In 1956, various armouries throughout Britain were being raided by the IRA looking for weapons and most of the RAF armouries contained many Lee Enfield rifles, Sten guns and revolvers. They also contained any personal weapons belonging to officers. It was decided that the armourers would do security duties in the armoury during the night instead of doing security patrols.

Four of us were selected for the first night and reported to the armoury at 5pm where we were told we would be in the armoury from Friday evening until Monday morning. Four beds had been supplied for us in the main armoury and we were issued with a rifle but no ammunition. There was a rigid routine set up in case anyone wanted into the armoury after it had been made secure for the night. If an officer wanted entry, he had to go to the guardroom and telephone the armoury, identify himself and state his reason for wanting entry. We checked his RAF number against the check list and asked him to hang up. Then we phoned the guardroom and asked them to identify themselves then verify the identity of the officer. If everything matched he was told to come to the armoury and, when he rang the doorbell, one of the four armourers on duty would be locked out of the main armoury and go to the front door, open a small flap and check the identity of the officer against the photographs we had been issued with. If OK, he was admitted to the armoury but there was still further checks made at the door to the main armoury if he wanted to go in there.

The first visitor we had was the Station Commander, Group Captain Deacon Elliot and he had to go through the procedure before entry to the armoury. He inspected the arrangements and decided that the rifles had to go as they served no purpose and would probably encourage any raiders to use their arms if they thought we were armed. So we were issued with brush shafts!

Everything went OK and we had quite a comfortable stay punctuated  by being allowed out two at a time to get our meals. The only thing we didn’t like was the fact that the armoury had a glass roof and it was impossible to see if anyone was up there but they would have good view of us. We had a very powerful radio in the armoury which been salvaged from a bomber and we spent many hours listening in to the messages being sent from the fishing boats which operated from the Humber. The fishermen obviously didn’t know we were listening in to their calls or didn’t care but the language used caused the port authorities to remind them that some decorum might be useful.

Over the weekend further security measures were taken when a circle of trip wires connected to flares was set up round the armoury. I don’t know if the sergeant who set up the trip wires was chosen because of his civilian occupation as a rat catcher but, as he was setting them up, one of the trip wires was activated and a flare went off in his face. It was straight out of Dad’s Army as he came into the armoury with his face covered in black soot with everyone, including officers, trying to keep a straight face.

There was a sad occasion when we were on duty during the Christmas holidays. Usually Scottish airmen were given the opportunity to stay at work over the Christmas period and they got leave over the New Year holidays. Someone who came to Leconfield at the same time as I did was Arthur Scott who came from Alexandria. Arthur was very quiet and doted on his BSA Golden Flash motorcycle. Somehow Arthur had met a girl from Hull and visited her quite often and one day going to Hull he was passing a long queue of cars when one of them drew out and he hit the side of it. He had all the protective gear on and managed to get on is feet. Someone asked if he was OK and he said he was then collapsed and died.The police found his identity card and contacted Leconfield to ask if he was from there. The telephone operator phoned the armoury and asked if we could confirm his identity. The RAF wanted to give him a military funeral but his family didn’t want it. Some of his mates were told they could go home two days early so about six of us attended his funeral at Alexandria cemetery.
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