When I joined the RAF in late 1980, my first posting was to Hendon, one of the oldest RAF stations in the country—and one of the most haunted. Growing up in Lincolnshire, I had only been to London once, but now I had museums, galleries, and cinemas on my doorstep. Yet Hendon itself soon became as fascinating as the capital.
My interest in the paranormal had begun in childhood. At six, while staying with my grandmother, I saw a boy step from her Victorian wardrobe—dressed in britches, stockings, and boots. He sat on the bed and spoke to me as though real. My mother called him an “invisible friend,” but my grandmother’s silence spoke volumes.
As I grew, footsteps echoed nightly through our Victorian home. By my teens I sometimes knew who was at the door before it opened, or felt overwhelmed by voices in the dark. A local medium taught me to block them, but my fascination remained.
By 1979, I was in the RAF. During basic training at Swinderby, I set the paranormal aside, though I kept a purple notebook of strange accounts. At Hendon, an admin error meant I arrived five days early and was given an empty barrack block—two floors of bare beds, rolled mattresses, and linoleum floors—all to myself.
The former RAF Barracks(Image: Creative Commons)
That first night, I saw a light glowing in the top corner room, but it vanished as I entered. Later, whispers drifted through the empty space. The next morning, footsteps echoed above me, though the upper rooms were stripped bare. When I told the gate guard, he admitted the block had been empty for months and was due for demolition. Even the dogs, he said, avoided certain hangars.
The RAF Museum confirmed Hendon’s grim history: crashes, accidents, and wartime losses. One security guard described aircraft displays shaking violently before he felt compelled to hurl himself over a balcony. Other stories told of female laughter linked to a V-1 strike in 1944 that destroyed a barrack block and killed all inside.
My own experiences continued. I heard footsteps, whispers, and the scrape of mattresses being moved. One morning, two were laid out as if unseen visitors had slept there. Civilians also told me of Hendon’s reputation. One recalled seeing an airman in WWII flying gear walking through houses, his legs vanishing below the knees—like Roman soldiers sighted “half-buried” beneath modern floors at York.
At the Grahame Park youth club, where I volunteered, local teenagers shared chilling encounters: · A girl awoke to an RAF corporal smiling at her before fading away.
· A young man saw a uniformed figure vanish like a TV switching off.
· A girl near the main gate met an airman in shirtsleeves who disappeared before her eyes.
· A youth worker described a pilot dragging something unseen, his ankles missing, his expression weary.
Nurses in nearby Colindale reported a woman in uniform drifting through their accommodation, believed to be a wartime casualty. Others saw ghostly figures in the British Newspaper Library and even a monk in Clitterhouse Crescent Park and Brent Cross shopping centre.
Records reveal further tragedies:
- 1911: Bernard Benson, 23, fell 100 feet from an ASL Valkyrie aircraft—the first recorded fatality at Hendon.
- 1943: An Avro Anson crashed on a trolleybus, killing two pilots and injuring civilians.
- 1944: V-1 bombs destroyed barracks and hit Colindale Hospital, killing WAAF personnel.
These losses echo through the stories and sightings that persist to this day.
Now, decades later, I am compiling a book on the Haunted RAF—not only ghost stories but the history behind them, so the tragedies and those who served are not forgotten. The first 50 copies will be donated to the Hendon Museum in support of its work.
If you were stationed at Hendon, attended the Grahame Park youth club, or witnessed strange happenings at the nurses’ home, British Newspaper Library, or Clitterhouse Crescent, maybe you remember me if so I would love to hear from you.
It has been forty-five years since I lay in that empty barrack, listening to whispers, footsteps, and laughter of unseen girls. Hendon stayed with me. After eight months I left for RAF Stanmore and Bentley Priory—another station with its own haunted reputation. But that is a story for another time.
Contact details:
📧 Email: parapsychology.research@outlook.com
📮 Haunted RAF, Unit 11, Brechin Business Centre, Brechin, Angus DD9 6DY
