19/06/2026
ON PARADE AT HMS MERLIN
Contributor – Eric Simpson
In this image we see parade time at HMS Merlin, the Navy’s avian title for the Royal Navy Air Station, Donibristle. The date, the 11th of July 1946, is on the back of the photograph, but not the precise location nor the occasion, but it is clear that senior officers, one a rear admiral, are inspecting naval and air force cadets with two planes in the background. To find out more, I looked through the back numbers of the Dunfermline Press. From the Press, I found that members of the Air Training Corps were in camp at Donibristle at that time. The naval cadets, I suppose, may have been in camp too. The admiral, I learned, was Rear Admiral (Air) GN Oliver who was paying an informal visit. The officer following him was most likely, the then station commander, Captain CAN Chadwick.
Lined up between the air force cadets and the large shed in the background are two planes, both biplanes. These I can identify as de Havilland Dominies. These were the military version of a very successful small airliner, the DH Dragon Rapide, usually abbreviated to Rapide. The twin-engined Rapide, which first flew in 1934, was a scaled down version of the four-engined DH Dragon and carried 6/8 passengers on short-haul flights on destinations like the Scottish islands and the Scilly Isles. The military version, the Dominie, was used by the RAF and the Navy for training and communication flights. Between the military and civilian versions no fewer than 728 were built. Some still survive and dozens of this lovely little aircraft are still flying. See the second image for a clear view of a Rapide photographed on a beach, but where I do not know.
At Donibristle the Dominies were flown by 782 Squadron which was formed as a Communications Squadron. When formed the squadron was largely composed of aircraft and crews from the Channel Islands who had been evacuated when the Germans occupied these islands. The Squadron served as the military version of an airline, carrying personnel and equipment between the different naval air stations in Scotland, England and Northern Ireland. When rationing was enforced welcome additions to the diet at Donibee were eggs brought back on flights to Orkney. One of the navy’s airfields in Orkney was RNAS Twatt (yes, no kidding!).
In the post-war years the Communications Squadron continued until in 1953 it was privatised. Renamed the Northern Communications Flight, the aircrew were civilians employed by Airwork Ltd. In 1994 I had a visit from Reg Leach, a former Airwork pilot, who gave me a lot of information on the workings of the flight. Reg spent five years at Donibee, from 1953 to 1958. He and his family lived in Old Chesters Cottage which he rented from Lord Doune. The Flight provided a daily passenger service to Northern Ireland, flying via Abbotsinch, now Glasgow Airport. Among other flights there was a twice-weekly service to Lossiemouth (then HMS Falmar) via Arbroath (then HMS Condor). This was then passed to the control tower so that the controllers could give the pilot the course he was to take. Ironically, one of the last flights undertaken by the Northern Communications unit was for Duncan Sandys, the very Defence Minister whose cuts resulted in the closure of the Aircraft Repair Yard in 1959 and thus ended the last vestiges of military flying at Donibristle. On landing at Abbotsinch, Duncan Sandys congratulated the pilot: ‘Magnificent job you are doing.’ Came the reply: ‘Yes, but we are being abolished in 13 days’ time under your Defence cuts.’
