RAFIA
A HISTORY OF RAFIA SO FAR…
The Idea…
It’s a bit early to talking about the history of RAFIA, but if we don’t record something now it’ll be harder for those who follow to do so. There have been at least 2 previous attempts to get an association off the ground since the mid 80s: the first was shortly after formation of the General Duties Intelligence Branch in the early 90s, including the creation of a tie by Squadron Leader James Rickard, and the second was in the 00s when initially Group Captain Ross Bailey and then Group Captain Stu Stirrat were Heads of Branch. The issue both times really was a lack of capacity for people with increasingly busy day jobs to actually do the work needed to stand up and run an association. It is also worth noting that on both occasions the aim was to create an association specifically for the officer cadre, which limited the potential membership and reduced the inertia required to get past the first rushes of enthusiasm.
The First Meeting…
I started making comments about starting an association up in my last 5 or so years of Regular service and made them sufficiently ‘publicly’ that an expectation would be built up that I would find it difficult to walk away from. This came out of a sense of ‘we deserve it’ which was also fuelled by such things as the assignment of a Badge for the Profession. In spring of 2022, I sent out an invite for people who were interested to meet at Chicksands on 16 June . {redacted} had already volunteered to coordinate attendance and so was effectively the first committee member. {redacted} was the commander at Chicksands at the time and had made sure the Mess was available and so some 30 people met in the Chicksands Station Cinema on the 16th. That meeting essentially fell into two parts: Group Captain (Retd) Dr Paul Sewart led a session on the history of intelligence in the RAF; and we went through the elements of a draft constitution. We debated and agreed forms of membership, primarily agreeing that the membership base should be wide, welcoming anyone linked to the RAF’s intelligence-related activity. We also debated and agreed an annual membership subscription of £18, with a concession for those going through training to get a free period of membership. Finally, we agreed the key aims of the association: to organise social events for the members; to conduct activities that would assist with career development of the members; and to celebrate the successes of the profession, including managing an awards process. Most of those in attendance then also attended a buffet supper in Chicksands Priory Officers’ Mess. From this initial gathering, RAFIA was born, a constitution was agreed, and a committee began to be drawn together.
2022-2025…
In that first few months, having formed a ‘committee of the willing’, the basics were set up… a bank account, permission from ACAS’s team to use the Royal Air Force branding, some initial discussions on social events. I had discussed the idea of the Association with CAS (then Air Chief Marshal Sir Mike Wigston) in my departure interview from the Service and suggested we might ask then-Air Chief Marshal Sir Stu Peach (now The Lord Peach of Grantham) to be President. I did then approach Lord Peach and he kindly agreed to the role.
The approach was to be a slow and deliberate but, even so, we had quite a lot to learn along the way. Initially, we were notably weak in reaching out to potential membership, lacked some core capacity to generate activity, and found it challenging to retain members year on year. We had to put measures in place to fix these weaknesses. The first social functions were a pizza night at RAF Waddington in early 2022 and a Dinner Night at RAF Wyton, which was well attended by around 50 people. We had begun monthly committee meetings and the committee stabilised with a good mix of people. AGMs in 2022 and 2023 followed, both at the RAF Club. We began a set of tailored visits linked to our new NextWork programme at well-known companies. We augmented the semi official RAF Intelligence Association logo with one depicting the ‘Raven and Lightning Bolt’ from the Profession badge, adding to it colours of light blue, gold and black. We had had our first gift of a £1000, from one of our retired members (who wished to remain anonymous); with that, we bought 2 large display flags bearing our new Raven logo. We also edged into merchandise, most notably through the relationship between our Secretary, {redacted}, and the Chiltern Brewery, and Ravenbolt beer was born.
Further social and recruitment events followed - we visited Parliament in January 2024, and began having stands at associated families days and other events. We also started a well-attended annual informal dinner at the Civil Service Club in the spring, now in its third year. Then, after discussing with the team at Air Command, we launched our Awards programme, with the presentation of 2 new awards – the Raven Award for Innovation and the Noor Inayat Khan Award for Courage and Determination. We did some initial fund-raising, with another donor who wished to be anonymous, to get prize money for those awards and also for the established Chauhan Award for Operational Excellence. The first Awards dinner was in November 2024 at the International Bomber Command Memorial, with around 70 guests. Lord Peach was not able to attend and Air Marshal Phil Sturley (of The Sturley Sword fame), a member and ex recce pilot, agreed to step in as the speaker. We held a small event in March 2025 with Dr Helen Fry in the RAF Club Library to help those wanting to go in to writing and publishing, which showed us such events could be attractive to the members. By the time the calendar rolled round to November 2025, we had been able to raise much more significant funds from 4 sponsors (Tekever, The RAF Museum, Inzpire, and MAIAR) to assure the future of the Awards Dinner for 2-3 years ahead, and the Dinner in November 2025 was similarly well attended, Lord Peach was able to be present, and the location was again in Lincoln but this time at the impressive County Assembly Rooms.
We now have a regular rhythm of events and activity that drive quite significant efforts to manage all the aspects. The next phase should see steady growth in membership and more ambition in fund raising and services for those members.
Steve Thornber
Chair RAFIA
