The History of the RAF Fire Service Museum

The museum was started in 2004 and officially opened on 2 nd April 2005 in memory of John Arthur, the late president of the RAF & Defence Fire Service Association. His greatest wish was that the vehicles and equipment used throughout the RAF and Defence Fire Services should be kept for future generations. Wolverhampton Airport were able to allow the use of one of the old training buildings at the former RAF Halfpenny Green site and it has been renovated and set out to display the memorabilia and equipment of the services with the collection of crash and fire and rescue vehicles stored outside.

In 2006 the museum became a Limited Company and the intention is now to generate sufficient funds to allow the erection of a building in which to restore and display this collection for future generations. The collection started with an Alvis MK6 that was brought to the museum following partial restoration carried out at one of the museum founders' homes in Shropshire. This has since led to the acquisition of another dozen or so vehicles from the 1950's through to the 1970's with others in the pipeline.

The policy of the museum is briefly:-

To preserve, restore, maintain and display the collection of Fire vehicles and memorabilia for the benefit of the general public.

To collect, record and archive photographs and memories of crash rescue incidents over the years.

To promote an awareness of military fire fighting history

To contribute to the publication of relevant periodicals and books.

To attend airshows and relevant events in order to display vehicles and promote the collection.

Our objectives are:-

To become the primary military fire museum in the UK and increase the collection of vehicles and memorabilia to reflect all aspects of airfield and military fire fighting.

To build up sufficient credibility to enable the museum to obtain funding from local government, the Heritage Lottery Fund and elsewhere.

To earn the respect of other preservation groups and collections so that relevant items may be loaned to the museum for display .