COPYRIGHT © and all other RIGHTS in these pages are reserved by The Yeovil Branch of The Royal Aeronautical Society.
This site was last updated on 30th January 2012.
The Royal Aeronautical Society, the oldest aeronautical organisation in the world, was founded in 1866, in London. Sixty years later, two branches to the Society were formed. The first was Coventry, in March 1926 followed a later that year by Yeovil.
At a meeting held on the 18th October 1926, the Westland Aircraft Society was formed. However; less than 2 months later the Westland Aircraft Society became the Yeovil Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Throughout it’s life the branch has been very much a company affair.
However, from the beginning there was always a faction within the branch whose chief interest was to bring the branch under the wing of the Royal Aeronautical Society and the branch represents the only occurrence of an existing organisation continuing it’s own existence after becoming a branch of the Society. At a meeting of the Society Council held on 14th December 1926, the council agreed to ‘accede to the request of the Westland Aircraft Society to become the Yeovil Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society’ and on that day became the second branch.
Under this arrangement, the Yeovil Branch was entitled to retain its original identity and did so up until the Second World War, with Rules and Procedure at variance with the normal practice of Branches. The Secretary of the Main Society, Col. Pritchard, was completely opposed to the situation, but in spite of that, the relationship with Col. Pritchard and the Society was excellent. In March 1934 Col. Pritchard wrote to the Victor Gaunt, the founding Hon. Secretary saying 'I really must congratulate you all upon the excellent show you always put on in every way. The Yeovil Branch is the envy of all other Branches and the standard to which they aim'.
From the outset the Yeovil Branch has been very vigorous, with an interesting lecture programme. To begin with, one of its main objectives was to hold lectures for Ground Engineers to meet an examination syllabus which had been recently been published by the Air Ministry. The number of lectures held in a 6 month season increased to as many as 30, up until at least 1933. The Westland Aircraft Society benefitted enormously from being a Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society, with large number of lectures being published in the Journal. In the January 1928 Journal no less than 15 solid pages of Yeovil Branch lectures were published. The lectures of those days were given by prominent figures of the aeronautical indsutry, such as Dowty, Fedden and Rubbra.
After the Second World War all reference to the Westland Aircraft Society was dropped. However, in 1963 it was realised that there were still a few distinctly odd Rules and Practices being followed. Following this discovery the Rules and Practices were completely revised and approved by the Society, so that the branch became a fully respectable Branch.