By far the most difficult areas of research concerning Isle of Wight firefighting has been the various private and works brigades that have existed at one time or another, some for decades, some for just a few years. I have unearthed quite a lot of information about some, but others that I know existed don't appear in the paragraphs below as I have discovered no details about them at all. 

I'd encourage anyone with any information to please contact me here. 

The Grubber Brigade - Newport House of Industry

As the number of poor steadily increased, so too did the taxes, to the annoyance of those most wealthy, notably Sir John Barrington of Swainston Manor, Sir Richard Worsley of Appuldurcombe House, and Sir William Oglander of Nunwell House. Convinced that the poor were only poor due to idleness and a refusal to work, these three spearheaded a campaign to close the parish houses and establish the House of Industry, where charity was no longer the objective – creating a financial profit for the rich was the plan.

Britain's first workhouse was the House of Industry at Nacton in Suffolk, which had been founded in 1758, established to look after the parish of Sandford. Ten years later, in 1768, an Act of George III made provision for the establishment of a much larger House for all the Isle of Wight's poor, not just the poor of one parish. In 1771 a second Act of Parliament For establishing a House or House of Industry in the Isle of Wight, for the Reception, Maintenance, and Employment of the Poor belonging to the several Parishes and Places within the said Island united the poor responsibilities of the Island's boroughs and parishes into the House of Industry's corporate body. Sir John Barrington, Sir Richard Worsley, and Sir William Oglander were made trustees. The poorhouses belonging to the Island's parishes were sold off to help fund the new site, many of which were sold to Barrington, Worsley and Oglander (credit www.h2g2.com).

It became evident that the House of Industry retained its own firefighting capability when researching the history of fires in and around the Newport district. The first confirmed Press report of a House of Industry firefighting capability was revealed in the Illustrated London News (Fig.1). The report focussed on a substantial fire that destroyed the C Ward Dormitory of the Lower Prison at Parkhurst Juvenile Reformatory. The building, home to 200 incarcerated 15- to 19-year-olds, was destroyed, incredibly without loss of life. The firefighting response came from the Garrison, the town, and – shortly afterwards the engine from the House of Industry, under the superintendence of the Governor, Mr Clark, with some of the able-bodied paupers.

This first reference to The Grubber Fire Brigade made up of paupers capable of the task, is followed by many more. In the following years they assisted at a large rickyard fire at Little Pan Farm, another fire at the Reformatory that began in the tailors workshop, followed by a blaze that spread across a range of buildings occupied by the 45^th (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment of Foot.

We have 325 feet of hose. There are four hydrants, but with these we can only get the water to the middle of the roof when the high pressure is on. We have forced the water over the House from the pond with the engine, but it takes an immense power. It is an old engine, and its barrels are too large, but it is in thoroughly good repair. There was no question asked, or information provided, to suggest that The Grubber firemen were equipped with protective clothing, gloves, boots or helmet.

Almost one-hundred years earlier, the 1792 House of Industry Rule Book includes a reference to the Grubber brigade drills.

That the Governor shall… frequently exercise the paupers in playing the fire-engine, given by Mr Hesse, that they may be expert in the use of it, in case of fire. This was followed in 30 August 1800 by - That the fire engine be exercised once a month by the people of this house and that the governor send for one of Mr WILKINS men once a quarter so that the engine is good condition.

The tenacity with which the rudimentarily equipped paupers attacked some of the districts largest fires, is in stark contrast to the idle and workshy described by Barrington, Worsley and Oglander. These most unlikely, unnamed, and unsung heroes among Isle of Wight emergency responders deserve their place and to be remembered in our firefighting history.

Osborne House Fire Brigade 

With fire roaring in a ventilation shaft beneath the nursery, he organised the staff into a bucket chain while furiously hacking at the floorboards with an axe. So determined was he to extinguish the fire before the firemen arrived, he flooded the place before misplacing a foot and crashing one leg through the ceiling of the room below. On arrival at the scene, observing the substantial water run-off, shattered ceiling and plaster debris, Captain Shaw’s opening address was ‘What’s all this mess?’

From there the relationship blossomed with Prince Bertie showing a keen interest in the role of the fireman, no doubt a distraction from the orthodoxy of his Royal appointments. Accompanied by his friend George Sutherland Leveson Gower, 3^rd Duke of Sutherland, of whom the Queen disapproved due to his unruly and anarchic undertakings, the pair were afforded fireman’s uniforms hanging from pegs at Chandos Street Fire Station in Marylebone (Fig.3). Subsequently Sutherland and the Prince would often attend the station to use the billiards table in the hope of getting a shout while playing. A letter retained by the Shaw family, written by the Prince’s personal secretary, evidenced his delight at receiving a new brigade helmet in 1879, that fits capitally.

In 1883, Captain Shaw, was invited to the Isle of Wight by Queen Victoria to advise on fire precautions at Osborne. No doubt she was influenced by her son, who attended with Shaw. In more recent times I was required to attend Osborne for fire service inspection of firefighting water supplies, and was able to study at close hand, the measures introduced by Shaw. These comprised the installation of an enclosed system of water supply from the estate reservoir to a pump house which applied pressure to feed 16-private hydrants on the circuit, some within the structure and some outside of it. The pump house carried, and still carries, the signage ‘Fire Station’ and was once the home of the Estate Fire Brigade where an engine, equipment and uniforms was stored. One cannot help but wonder if, being a keen unofficial fireman, it was Prince Bertie that was behind the inspiration for a formal in-house brigade, possibly cajoling Captain Shaw to convince the Queen it would be an appropriate precaution. In any case Her Majesty was pleased with Shaw’s recommendations and despatched him a clock in appreciation.

Above - Osborne House Fire Station photographed during a visit in my professional capacity in 2017.

Charles Grove

William Gilbert Knight

William Gilbert Knight came from the mainland to the Isle of Wight in 1923, residing at Ambrose, Grange Road, East Cowes. Previously he’d served in the Army since 1896 achieving the rank of Sergeant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, mainly in India. In 1913 he returned to home service, married Minnie in Portsmouth, and served overseas throughout the entirety of the First World War.

After the war he gave up the military life and took up groundskeeping and was taken on as park keeper of the Osborne Estate staff. Here he found comradeship akin to the military life in the ranks of the Estate Fire Brigade. When he passed away in 1938, at his funeral held four days later, his coffin was borne by firemen Atkins, Purnell, Johnson, and Foss of the Estate Fire Brigade. In reflection of his military service Bugler Tutton of the British Legion played The Last Post and Reveille at the graveside. The funeral was attended by a large contingent of officers and men of the Isle of Wight Fire Brigades Federation.

James Sanger

Little is known of the life of James Sanger other than his dual service at Osborne House as gatekeeper and fireman, and his previous service with the Army Fire Service, as deduced from the photo below. The medals on his chest in the image of him standing at the gate suggest military service overseas. 

Read about the fixed steam fire-engine installed at Osborne here - The Osborne Steam Fire Engine.

James Compton Merryweather's 1884 treatise 'Fire Protection of Mansions', suggests that Osborne was furnished with more than just the fixed steam fire engine mentioned above. Beginning on Page 57 of the first edition, Merryweather, who at the time was in charge of the well known firefighting supplies business of the same name, refers to the practicality of utilising manual fire engines for firefighting purposes at mansions - This kind of engine is made in eight or nine sizes, the largest being capable of pumping 220 gallons of water to a height of 150 feet; it requires 46 men to work at its full power, but as so many will scarcely ever be available for the work upon a gentlemen's estate, I may set it down as too large for the protection of private residences. 

The engine of this class usually found at mansions, throws 115 gallons to a height of 125 feet when worked by 26 men. I have several times seen these engines worked at a considerable distance from the water supply; they were served by buckets passed from hand to hand along a line of people formed from the engine to the water, the empty buckets being returned to the water along another line. 

Occasionally, when there are two or more engines, and but a few people present, one engine stationed at the water has been made to pump into the cistern of another, placed as close as possible to the fire. Engines of this class are to be found at Osborne and Sandringham...

This suggests that the system installed at Osborne, beginning with the Shand Mason fixed steam fire engine, may have been afforded the addition of a second engine, at Merryweather's suggestion one requiring manual operation, to form a crude water relay. However, given the statistical information revealed in an edition of The Engineer, of August 1884, this seems unnecessary. 

Appley Towers Volunteer Fire Brigade

The Appley Towers Volunteer Fire Brigade was the culmination of the estate owners desire to be a Chief Officer of a fire brigade.

Captain George William Hutt is one of Isle of Wight firefighting history’s most interesting of characters, but he was never truly a fireman. Heralding from an esteemed family, his father Major General Sir George Hutt was a distinguished decorated officer of the Scinde and Afghan campaigns and his uncle Sir William Hutt (Fig.5) was commissioner for the foundation of South Australia, and instrumental in the colonisation of New Zealand, where a city, valley and river still carry his surname.

Remarked on by a young woman who was in the crowd that gathered to watch the spectacle was the incredulity that Captain Hutt, on seeing his home ablaze, dashed back inside, donned his personal set of firefighting uniform, and re-emerged looking immaculate and unflustered. So good a performance did he deliver that several witnesses were convinced he must have been the captain of Ryde Fire Brigade, although according to contemporary observers, a little too portly for the buttons of his tunic.

Ironically it was the near total destruction of his own home that eventually convinced other councillors of the UDC that the threat from fire was real. Subsequently the St Helens UDC Fire Brigade was formed on the basis of three geographically distinct sub-brigades at St Helens Green, Seaview, and St Johns. Captain Hutt finally achieved his dream and was appointed officer in charge of the St Johns unit at which point he disbanded the Appley Towers brigade to concentrate on his new role. It is notable that the St Johns unit was envied by other brigades as Captain Hutt ensured his firemen wore the best clothing and were equipped with the best apparatus from his personal finances.

Unfortunately for Captain Hutt, Chief Officer of the St Johns Brigade of the St Helens UDC, he suffered declining health in 1908 and was compelled to resign from the position he had coveted. He was thanked by the UDC for the substantial investment he had made in the brigade. Sadly aged just 45, he passed away at Appley Towers on 4 January 1910. His legacy is that it appears he is the only resident in Isle of Wight history to have created, funded and commanded his own fire brigade.

Railway Fire Brigades

A grainy black and white image of the Pier Head firefighting crew of the London Southwestern and London, Brighton and South Coast Railway (Fig.8) can be dated as no later than 1922, when Southern Railway was formed from amalgamation under the auspices of the Railways Act 1921, otherwise known as the Grouping Act, which took 120 rail companies and merged them into four giants, the Big Four, of which Southern Railway was one. The Act became effective on 1 January 1923.

The first mention in the Press of a fire involving an Island line occurred on 15 December 1874 when one of the Newport buildings of the Cowes-Newport line, including the covered walkway, was destroyed in a blaze. No mention is made of a railway fire brigade, the sole response seems to have come from the Borough brigade, too late to make any positive impact. Five years later, 4 April 1879, at the other end of the same line the Mill Hill station suffered a similar blaze that levelled the building of origin, although the Cowes Fire Brigade were credited with saving – the adjoining shed which the company dignify by the name of a waiting room (IW Observer). A huge crowd flocked to Newport station on 15 May 1904 when a store, containing an estimated 500 gallons of oils and tallow, leapt into flames that reached high into the Sunday morning sky billowing about its volumes of thick black smoke. The Borough brigade attended and contained the fire, but still no mention of a railway fire brigade.

The need for railway companies to focus their attention on fire precautions may have become more acute with the establishment of the Railway Fires Act 1905, that provided for compensation payments to farmers that lost land or crops to fires caused by sparks or cinders from locomotives. However, the next occasion of fire involving a railway structure at St Johns on 2 September 1911, still attracted the attention of Ryde Fire Brigade with no suggestion of firefighting undertakings by railway company men. It was the same story when the same thing happened at the same location eighteen months later, 8 March 1913, and again on 6 March 1922.

Returning to 16 May 1875 a report concerning a smouldering of the boards beneath the roundhouse on the pier, was dealt with under the supervision of Mr Lewis, the watchman – the later British Railways manual states categorically that station watchmen – must, where possible, be members of the Fire Brigade. However when the crane house was discovered ablaze by an anonymous visitor who contributed his thoughts in a letter to the IW Observer in August 1881, the watchman, who couldn’t be found for some time, came in for substantial criticism for his lack of vigilance. As late as June 1908 a report appeared of a fire in the Pier Pavilion being tackled in its early stages by a constable, a coastguard and one Mr Ford who lent buckets. Further on, in May 1920, a fire in the Porter’s Room at the Pier Head was attended by men of the Borough Brigade.

And then, four hours after sunrise on Sunday 18 June 1922 two customs officials became aware of smoke percolating, followed by a small flame, from beneath the boards at the Pier Head. Buckets were secured and boards prised up, revealing the extent of the fire below and that it was beyond the capability of those present to subdue. Ryde Fire Brigade was summoned. Under Chief Officer Henry Jolliffe the brigade exposed more of the area and were shocked to find that flames were present in approximately 100 square yards of the structure. While the firemen above revealed the burning matter and directed water, a boat was sent beneath the pier to attempt the same from below.  In several places joists had already burned through.

The post-fire inquiry ascertained that the cause was most likely a discarded cigarette having smouldered overnight before leaping into flames on the morning breeze. The incident was considered a close shave for it could have caused far more damage had the smouldering broken into open flame during the night.

After the war the watchroom log kept at Ryde Fire Station evidence frequent visits to the Pier Head by members of the station, to inspect firefighting facilities, which on 10 November 1954 included – new pumps and house.  In March 1957 the same firemen of Ryde conducted a large scale exercise involving an assumed fire affecting the Round House Café, attracting the attention of four main jets supplied with water pumped from the sea.

Then in the 1960’s a series of irrefutable facts begin to emerge concerning a dedicated – Ryde Pier Head team of part-time firemen (IWCP), men who were employed on the Pier in other roles and both trained and responded to the call when needed. In the middle of May 1960 Firemen Yeo, Forrester, Heath, Thrower and Eklund, travelled to Reigate and won the railways Southern Region five-man trailer pump competition. On the last day of the same month their status as Southern Region champions promoted them into the Inter-Regional (national) competition held at Marylebone where they came fourth. Just over a year later, the same five men having again been crowned Southern champions, they attended the Inter-Regional competition at the Lambeth headquarters of the London Fire Brigade, where, up against 45-teams from around the country, they placed Isle of Wight firefighting firmly on the map with a record-breaking winning display, completing their drill over 13 seconds faster than their nearest rivals, an incredible triumph of preparation, dedication, and skill.

Above - the Inter-regional (national) railways firefighting team of Ryde Pier Head, celebrating victory at LFB Headquarters, Lambeth.

Below - the Ryde Pier Head team in action at Lambeth.

Returning to Reigate in May 1962 they were knocked into second place in the five-man drill, but Eklund, Eldridge and Ingleton won the three-man event while Firemen Moore and White of St John’s motive power depot No.1, were triumphant in the two-man extinguisher drill class.

The report of this event described the drill they had to conduct – Run pump to dam, feed dam from hydrant, run two lines of hose to attack fire, passing over railings and under railway track, the course had been arranged so that the teams had to lose some 30ft of hose during the run.

After 1965 either the competitions were stopped, or they were no longer reported in the press. The former seeming more likely. But firefighting provisions certainly continued to some degree.

When I first joined IWFRS in 1996 there was a small shed at the Pier Head containing a trailer-pump, several lengths of hard suction and rolled hose, plus four sets of breathing apparatus owned by the fire service. It was part of our regular checks to attend the Pier, open up the shed and check on these items. In the event of a fire, it was incumbent on staff at the Pier Head to open up the shed, position the trailer-pump, start the engine, and get everything prepared for our arrival. With the size and weight of fire appliances increasing steadily over the decades, it had been a very long time since any firefighting appliance was able to traverse to the Pier Head, reliability of the trailer-pump was paramount. Whilst there had been arrangements for a light support vehicle, a van, or Land Rover, to respond to the Esplanade to transport firefighters to the Pier Head, it was often the case in my own experience that this arrived too late, and on many occasions we thumbed a lift from a willing member of the public.

The trailer pump was decommissioned several years ago and it is not my place to comment on the current precautions in the context of the history of the Island’s railway firefighters. It only remains to be said that the era of the railway firefighter on the Isle of Wight, like those of nearly all of his private sector contemporaries, is over.

Saunders Roe Fire Brigade

The information I have relating to firemen of Saunders Roe is limited to their activities during the Second World War. Before or beyond that I know nothing and would welcome contact from anyone who does.

by SARO firemen under war conditions, some of whom were formally recognised. Former Newport fireman Arthur Pointer was SAROs Chief Officer, but there is little doubt that it was Herbert’s training that moulded the accomplished teams of firefighters the company possessed.

Above - SAROs highly successful fire crew of the Laminated Wood Products site who scooped several awards in the Southern Industrial Fire Brigades and ARP competition at Tipnor, Portsmouth, on 11 July 1943. Herbert Foss is third from right. Note the helmets bear the letters SAR FB.

J. Samuel White's Fire Brigade

Sadly, even less is known of JS White’s Fire Brigade than that of SARO. Below is an image (Fig.14) of the Engine Works No.1 Fire Crew that won the Interdepartmental Challenge Cup in 1942, Sir James Milne, Managing Director is in the dark suit.

Britten Norman Rescue and Firefighting Service

First I need to explain the term ‘rescue and firefighting service’. This term seems to be unique to the aviation sector, commonly abbreviated to RFFS and applied to all firefighting units at CAA licensed aerodromes across the country.

Aircraft began operating from a field that formed part of Bembridge Farm in 1920. One year later the field earned the right to operate as a licensed aerodrome having achieved the rudimentary requirements of the era. By 1929 the Automobile Association had taken the initiative to provide services to pilots and the aviation world; the first air-route maps, a weather information service broadcasted hourly, and the authority to conduct landing ground surveys. When gentlemen of the AAs Aviation Service inspected the 600-yard Bembridge runway in 1933, they were sufficiently pleased to award the aerodrome an AA approval.

In the years before the outbreak of the Second World War aviation enjoyed halcyon days. General aviation and chartered transports were many and varied and Bembridge enjoyed its share of the spoils.

Desmond Norman and John Britten, both graduates of De Havilland, succeeded and expanded their aviation crop spraying operations. Ultimately this success funded their ultimate target – to design and build an aeroplane.

They succeeded by designing and constructing an aircraft of such rugged utility that it remains a viable proposition to operators of the type until this very day. But in the 1960’s, Britten-Norman, needed room to allow for the expansion.

At that time the standards required were both stated and put to the test by the inspectorate of the Board of Transport. On Friday 6 June 1969, their adapted appliance and drills were put to the test before the scrutiny of a team of inspectors from the BoT. At 12:50 an inspector activated the crash alarm. 30 seconds later the tender and crew departed from the standby position at the side of Hangar 1 (where the Propeller Inn is today) and within one minute were at the allocated site of the fire with media produced within another 30 seconds. Station Officer Urry noted that the BoT inspectors were – very impressed with crew and equipment improvements on last year – revealing that lashing a portable pump to the roof was acceptable, but also that there must have been an airfield fire crew in 1968 and perhaps long before.

During this period what is derived from the Station Officers log is that there were two factions to the aerodrome fire service. The AP Crew (Airport Crew) was staffed by men employed in Hangar 1, whilst the NF Crew (New Factory) was made up of men working in the expansive hangar to the northeast corner of the field (Hangar 2). This also suggests that more than one appliance was in service.

Later the same month a crash-rescue drill carried out on a Monday evening was noted by Chief Officer Urry complete with the names of those taking part.

AP Crew - S/O Urry, L/F Cook, Fm Young, Fm Budden

NF Crew - L/F Linnington, Fm Pearce, Fm Lockhart, Fm Soden, Fm Arnold

So dramatic were the events as described in the Station Officer’s log that I wondered if it were a training exercise. However, in 2007, former Leading Fireman Dave Williams, by then long since retired and paying one of his frequent visits to the airport to reminisce and share his humour, provided me with an insight to the event and confirmed it was a real incident. In his opinion the fire wouldn’t have reached such staggering proportions if the Station Officer hadn’t taken the decision to instruct the man at the head of the ladder to smash a window and direct his jet inside. Dave’s recollection, overseeing the crew operating the main jet from the second-floor landing, was that the broken window created an air-track upon which the fire fed greedily and expanded in all directions. He alleged that the person requiring evacuation was one of the firemen overcome by the smoke and heat – at that time the airport fire service didn’t possess any breathing apparatus! Dave chuckled with irony at the memory of the men of Bembridge Fire Station, under the command of former wartime Ryde firemen, then Station Officer Bill Barnett, arriving soon after and telling the airport firemen to sling your hook!

Circa 1985 - airfield services vehicles, on the second right is RIV Commando Brit 1 alongside Brit 2 which towed a Perren unit.

In the same month with news of asbestos related health conditions emerging across the nation, BN’s firemen expressed their concerns about continued use of the Fire Protection Suits. Safety Officer Mr Cover despatched a letter to Bristol Uniforms who responded dated 12 December 1978. Bristol’s response included a copy of a letter dated two years before from TRA Industrial Products Ltd., of Rochdale. TRAs six bullet-pointed statements made in April 1976 began with a barely reassuring opinion that the type of material used was less dangerous than other types and concluded with point (6) below.

In New Year 1979, Chief Officer Fred Bryant was clearly dissatisfied with the Bristol Uniform response and wrote to the Chief Fire Officer of London Fire Brigade, P.H. Darby, CBE, QSFM, FI Fire E, requesting his opinion. The reply came from the CSO of the Greater London Council’s Technical Services, stating that LFB had never used asbestos lined suits but had previously used helmets, gloves and blankets containing asbestos. The CSO revealed that based on advice from the Home Office in consultation with the Health and Safety Executive these items were withdrawn from service and replaced with safer alternatives. One may presume this would have been sufficient to see the suits withdrawn from service with the RFFS, but as evidenced by later references, this was not the case.

On 2 February, with the airfield sodden following persistent heavy rain, the RFFS were summoned by crash alarm at 14:00. The concerned flight crew of Islander G-BEKY was inbound on a single engine. The crew’s response was rapid and as the aircraft landed safely but became mud-bound, Land Rover CDL 84L, arrived first in 1 minute 4 seconds from the alarm. 2 i/c Lionel Frampton quickly identified no risk of fire. Unfortunate it was that the crew of the main pump, a Commer appliance, weren’t aware of the anti-climatic arrival of G-BEKY as the appliance, with a crew of five, soon became bogged in the waterlogged grass at the end of the STOL strip. A drama turned to a crisis when Flight Shed chargehand Mr Hasketh deployed a fuel bower onto the field to offload aircraft ballast which also became stuck in the mud.

In his summary report Chief Officer Bryant stated that the surface of the affected area was badly damaged. He also stated arrangements had been made to install a Bendix radio in the Commer appliance, to ensure driver and crew were privy to vital information that would have prevented them continuing unnecessarily onto the sodden grass. A tractor successfully dragged everything back off the field, adding to the surface damage.

It was to be Chief Officer Bryant’s final act, other than to furnish the company with his resignation in a letter dated 7 March 1979, accompanied by his report of the state of the RFFS, concluding with – The general set-up is sound, and the crew members work well and efficiently together, with the advent of new equipment I feel that any emergency that occurs on the airfield will be dealt with swiftly and factory incidents will be under control in the shortest possible time.

A few years later when the MoD insisted that protecting its assets from fire was incumbent on BN in the hangars and offices as it was on the airfield, it became necessary to develop the airfield firefighters to make a first response to a structural incident.

Above - Firefighters Tony Patchett and Pete Dalby, integrating BA procedures into airfield fire and rescue training, January 2006.

Whilst an argument existed that the same, or greater, firefighting capacity could be more easily achieved by the acquisition of a single large capacity appliance, the ground conditions at Bembridge aerodrome favoured a fleet of comparatively light and highly mobile six-wheeled appliances.

Above - BN RFFS in front of the fire station, August 2008.

Providing fire protection of MoD aircraft required an additional procedure that could be a little discomfiting for those tasked with it. For every engine start a single crew had to be present. One of the crew had to endure the unpleasant task of standing close to and directly off the nose of the aircraft, maintaining eye-contact with the pilot, while the engines were fired up one after the other. Clutching the nozzle of a hose that extended to a large capacity wheeled Halon cylinder, the unfortunate firefighter was to be ready to react the instant a fire erupted from the engine. Standing so close to the blur of the propellers, ear buds jammed in to counter the deafening roar, and praying that the aircraft brakes were effective, we all took our turn at this unattractive proposition.

Around 2010 following an inability to reach agreement with the airport owner, BN began to pull its operations from Bembridge and relocated to HMS Daedalus, today known as Solent Airport, near Gosport. This process required relinquishing the civil aerodrome licence, coupled to relocation of all Ministry of Defence operations. The RFFS in its entirety was relocated to the mainland. The aerodromes first dedicated four-bay fire station, opened only a few years earlier, has remained empty ever since.

Since then, the field has been devoid of all commercial aviation operations and is overseen by the Vectis Gliding Club on behalf of the airfield owner on an unlicensed basis. No fire and rescue capability are required or available.

IW Airport (Sandown) Rescue and Firefighting Service

was the provision of a Series 1 Land Rover, 818 NYC, that towed a trailer. Neither the Land Rover or trailer featured a pump, discharge of firefighting foam was achieved by air pressure contained within a mounted cylinder. This had taken two different forms, as highlighted in the images below.

With barely enough foam to achieve the minimum standards of Category 1 RFFS requirements, the system was very much a one-shot-wonder leaving little margin for error but was nevertheless a simple and effective method of delivery via standard layflat hose flaked in a locker on the trailer. The earlier of the images also evidence a large capacity Halon extinguisher mounted on the trailer.

When the airfield came under new ownership in 2003, I was hired to attend, supervise, and record CAA compliant records based on a monthly training session for the members of the RFFS. CAA minimum requirement for a Cat 1 response is just two personnel and given the sparse staffing required to operate the airport this was the nominal expectation. This improved in 2005 when developments included in the opening of The Aviator restaurant and bar adjacent to the Control Tower. Coinciding with the procurement of a former RAF TACR2a appliance, which bore the callsign Crash 1, and retaining the Land Rover trailer as Crash 2, the need for more personnel above that required of the Cat 1 standard was enabled. Over the course of the following five years, I was to train several members of the restaurant and bar staff in addition to those directly employed on airfield ground operations.

Two of those I trained experienced the worst-case scenario when a single-engine aircraft crashed close to the airfield shortly after take-off in 2007. Making a minimum crewing response as rapidly as possible they were sadly faced with an irrecoverable blaze that took the lives of all four on board the aircraft. I was on holiday in the south of France when called concerning the incident and was quick to reassure those involved that they had performed their role without question when I returned home.

Sadly, after the success of the air shows The Aviator restaurant was destroyed by fire on 31 December 2007. I attended the incident as a member of Ryde Fire Station and had a personal reason for feeling deflation at the loss of such a unique venue for Isle of Wight aviation. Alongside destruction of the structure was the loss of many aviation artefacts of great interest and value.

With the restaurant gone so too went the staff and the strength of the RFFS was much reduced. Airport business declined, the CAA aerodrome licence was rescinded, and the airfield was sold to a London based development company who wished to re-purpose the area for housing. Fortunately, their plans were refused.

Under the new airfield leaseholder, the title of Sandown Airport has returned and so too has something of its halcyon days. A vast increase in aviation activity has been promoted by installation of artificial grass for the greater part of a runway previously renowned for having to shorten its available length, or close, following rain.

Although the airfield remains unlicensed and not under the scrutiny of the CAA, the leaseholder has invested in providing both a firefighting and medical response to emergencies on the site. Although not formally an RFFS unit under regulatory enforcement, the volunteer members of the airport’s emergency response crew stand today as the sole standing private fire and rescue service on the Isle of Wight.

There are many gaps in the history of the private and works brigades of the Isle of Wight. If you have any information and photographs that may assist, please contact me using the form below, thank you.