Bedford Gallery

Holding up the R101

A member of the WAAC - the Women's Army Auxiliary Corp - holds up the R101 Airship, riding at her home mast at Cardington, Bedford. R101 was a British rigid airship completed in 1929 as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. After initial flights and two enlargements to the lifting volume, it crashed on October 5, 1930, in France, during its maiden overseas voyage, killing 48 people. Amongst airship accidents of the 1930s, the loss of life surpassed the Hindenburg disaster of 1937, and was second only to that of the USS Akron crash of 1933. The demise of R101 effectively ended British employment of rigid airships

© Mary Evans Picture Library/TOM GILLMOR

Adeline, Duchess of Bedford

Adeline, Duchess of Bedford (1852-1920), formerly Lady Adeline Mary Somers-Cocks, George Sackville Russell, 10th Duke of Bedford. A lifelong philanthropist she was Chairman of the European War Fund founded by the Ambulance Department of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem during the First World War. She died of Date: 1914

© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans

Pacific Class.2. 4040 Queen Boadicea

1. 111 The Great Bear, 4 cylinders 6-8 wheels, Pacific Class. 2. 4040 Queen Boadicea, 4 cylinders 6-8 wheels, 4000 Class. 3. 2034 Butleigh Court, 2 cylinders 6-8 wheels, 2900 Class. 4. 3821 County of Bedford, 2 cylinders 6-8 wheels, 3800 Class. 5. 4302, 2 cylinders 5-8 wheels, 4300 Class. 6. 2840, 2 cylinder 4-8 wheels, 2800 Class. 7. 2230, 2 cylinder 6-8 wheels, 2200 Class. 8. 3169, 2 cylinder 5-8 wheels, 3100 Class. 9. 4202, 2 cylinder 4-8 wheels, 4200 Class. Date: 1917

© The Institution of Mechanical En