The Personnel Aircrews from at least seven nations have been stationed at North Weald and, at one time or another, the local hostelries have echoed to the accents of Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, Czechs, Norwegians and Poles. Altogether, 267 men, women and civilians lost their lives while serving at the Station in peace and war and in the Debt of Honour no distinction has been drawn between death in the face of the enemy or in an accident on or around the airfield. All served . . . and all paid the supreme sacrifice.

In June 1952, HRH The Crown Princess of Norway, Princess Astrid, unveiled a granite obelisk beside the main gate, on behalf of the two Norwegian squadrons which were based at the airfield during the Second World War, dedicated ‘in gratitude to the Royal Air Force, to the RAF Station North Weald, and to the people of the district’.

However, there has been no memorial specifically commemorating the service of the hundreds of aircrew and thousands of airmen and women who served at North Weald of whom so many lost their lives in the Allied cause. Over the years, several proposals were put forward to rectify the omission but not until February 2000 was the present memorial conceived. It has been specifically designed to be complementary — and to enhance — the original from Norway. The North Weald Airfield Memorial was dedicated on Sunday, September 3, 2000 — the 60th anniversary of the heaviest raid on the airfield. The memorial incorporates a bronze cabinet housing the Debt of Honour and visitors are encouraged to take a copy as a reminder of the debt we owe to those who entered the main gate . . . never to return.

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Princess Astrid of Norway unveiling the memorial stone outside Ad Astra House in 1952.

Also present with Princess Astrid of Norway is Wing Commander A. C. Deere, Station Commander of RAF North Weald at that time.(1952)