RNAS Lee-on-the-Solent Established

1917

In 1917, with the First World War demanding rapid expansion of Britain's aerial capability, the Admiralty established a Royal Naval Air Station at Lee-on-the-Solent. The station was designated for seaplane and flying boat operations, exploiting the sheltered waters of the Solent and the flat coastal terrain that early aviators had already identified as ideal for flight. The new air station, commissioned as HMS Daedalus, requisitioned farmland and open ground behind the seafront and constructed hangars, slipways, workshops, accommodation blocks and administrative buildings. A concrete slipway allowed seaplanes and flying boats to be launched directly into the Solent. The station's primary wartime role was anti-submarine patrol. German U-boats were wreaking havoc on Allied shipping in the English Channel and the Western Approaches, and aircraft offered a means of spotting submarines from the air and directing surface vessels to attack them. Flying boats based at Lee-on-the-Solent flew regular patrol sorties over the Solent, the eastern Channel and the approaches to Portsmouth and Southampton. The station also served as a training base, preparing naval aviators for operational service. The establishment of the air station transformed Lee-on-the-Solent from a small seaside resort into a military town. Hundreds of naval personnel were posted to the station, and the surrounding community adapted to serve their needs. Pubs, shops and boarding houses did a steady trade from the military population. The relationship between the town and the air station, sometimes close and sometimes uneasy, would endure for nearly 80 years. The air station's presence also altered the physical landscape of Lee, with military infrastructure gradually extending across land that had been earmarked for residential development.