Laid Gallery

Short S.38 - SA.1 Sturgeon S.1 RK797

Short S.38/SA.1 Sturgeon S.1 RK797, the first prototype of a new carrier-borne strike and reconnaissance aircraft for the Royal Navy. RK787 can be seen with flow realisation tufts attached to the port wing to investigate flow separation at high angles of attack. Intended for the new large carriers laid down at the end of the war, the requirement disappeared when the new carriers were cancelled at the end of the war. A small production run was built of a target towing and target facilities version for the Royal Navy, capable of operating from carriers if required. Date: circa 1948

© The Peter Butt Aviation Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library

A boy holds an egg in one hand and his pet hen in the other

A boy sits up in bed, He holds an egg in one hand and his pet hen by the tail feathers in the other. The hen regularly laid eggs in the boy's bed. Triley, near Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales Date: 1994

© Philip Dunn / Mary Evans Picture Library

Abergavenny, Bed, Boy, Chicken, Egg, Fun, Happy, Hen, Joy, Joyful, Laid, Layer, Laying, Monmouthshire, Pet, Triley, Wales

Telegram mobilising VAD 1914

This telegram, sent to Birchington late in the day on 14 October 1914, was the call to mobilise the local Voluntary Aid Detachments to set up their hospitals. In just a few hours detachments had to call in the promises of loans for furniture, bedding and equipment and set up their hospitals. There was considerable confusion. The train carrying the patients, eventually arrived several hours late, having travelled around much of Kent. Instead of 100 patients, 145 were disembarked from the train. All were Belgian soldiers. Eventually all were found a bed, although some were temproary - mattresses laid on the floor in the dining room of Quex House for example. This experience was repeated all over Kent and beyond as several thousand Belgian soldiers were evacuated from Ostend by the British Government. For Quex Park it was the start of four and a half years as a VAD Hospital. The Quex Park VAD Hospital opened on 15 October 1914 and closed on 31 January 1919. The hospital was run by Kent/178, the Birchington Detachment. The Commandant was Hannah Powell-Cotton (1881-1964), wife of Major Percy HG Powell-Cotton (1866-1940) of Quex Park, founder of the Powell-Cotton Museum. Major Powell-Cotton was the VAD Transport Officer for the Isle of Thanet area, responsible for organising the transport of patients from the stations to the local hospitals. Date: 1914

© The Powell-Cotton Museum Collection / Mary Evans Picture Library