Halton Hand Prints
Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Stephen Hillier, became the 100th pair of hands to be printed on our newly painted underpass at RAF Halton. He was joined by Group Captain Katherine Wilson, Station Commander.
To further commemorate the 100th year since the inception of the Royal Air Force the Station commissioned local artist Emma Bracken to design and paint a mural on the wall of the underpass. The mural consists of the images of the Fly Past over Buckingham Palace at the RAF100 Parade on 10th July, with a roundel and underneath Station personnel and local schoolchildren have put their handprints the represent the ever growing RAF and the community around Halton.
Jan Holdsworth, who was instrumental in making the event happen, said: “Months ago I was tasked with organising and project managing the new RAF100 Celebratory design to go on the wall of the underpass. The theme behind the design is looking towards the future and recognising the past therefore the roundel represents a rising or setting sun.
“Group Captain Brayshaw, former Station Commander, Wing Commander Hone, OC Support Wing and WO Giles, SWO came and were the first to put their hand prints on our new wall. Following on from this, we randomly chose a total of 100 RAF Halton Personnel to be included as legacy for the 100yr celebrations. Included in this are 15 children from Halton Combined School who we asked to participate. The reason for having the children is that we wanted to encompass the whole community and also the wording “the future is in your hands” and what a better way to do this than asking children to participate, they are our future. Further to this to accentuate the wording and link it to the RAF I had the youngest recruit place his hands underneath the wording as the future of our RAF is in their hands now.”
The Halton underpass provides a safe link for personnel between two of our sites and is used daily by recruits. Plans are already underway to celebrate the centenary of RAF Halton next year, to further update the underpass and continue the project.
