Events & talks

Below you can find details of the latest guest speaker talks and events planned at East Boldre Village Hall. This historic building was built in 1917/18 as part of the Royal Flying Corps training airfield during WW1. It has a stunning stage, large hall, and various rooms including displays about the local airfields.

Note: Copies of Andy’s b

SATURDAY 5 DECEMBER 2026 (DIBDEN PURLIEU)

144: The Lost Airmen of RAF Beaulieu

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Please note this is a repeat of the talk in East Boldre in October

An illustrated talk presenting Marc Heighway’s personal research into all 144 men who died in action flying from RAF Beaulieu during the Second World War. Drawing on physical primary sources including telegrams, condolence letters, burial records and crash artefacts, and alongside eyewitness accounts and visits to crash sites across the New Forest, the talk moves through individual stories to bring the scale of loss from a single airfield into sharp, human focus.

FRIDAY 15 JANUARY 2027 (EAST BOLDRE)

Racing Ace: The Fights & Flights of Samuel Kinkead

Samuel ‘Kink’ Kinkead won two DSCs with the Royal Naval Air Service, two DFC with the fledgling RAF and the DSO in Russia.A brilliant pilot, post-war he was a long range aviation pioneer and leading racing ace selected for the international Schneider Trophy in Venice in 1927.

Tragically he was killed aged just 31 in 1928 attempting to shatter the World Air Speed record. He is honoured by several memorials, at Cranwell, the RAF Club in Piccadilly, at Fawley and a permanent exhibition in the Kinkead Room at Calshot from where he set out on his final flight.

Sir Julian Lewis has pieced together Kink’s extraordinary story of achievement during his short but eventful and glamorous life. A fascinating account of flying derring-do in war and peace.

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Previous Events & Talks

2026
  • 7 November (Dibden Purlieu): Finding the Few: No Known Grave (Andy Saunders)
  • 27 October (East Boldre): 144: The Lost Airmen of Beaulieu Airfield (Marc Heighway)
  • 3 October (Dibden Purlieu): Schrecklichkeit: Zeppelins over England (Tony Otton)
  • 5 September (Dibden Purlieu): Drivers, Dangers, & Drag Queens: SOE Characters of WW2 (Peter Power)
  • 25 August (Brockenhurst): SAS Rogue: From Staybehind to SAS (Will Ward)
  • 2 August (Dibden Purlieu): Thunder Run: Meiktila 1945 (Jack Bowsher)
  • 16 July (Brockenhurst): Mongoose White: SOE Behind Japanese Lines in Burma (Simon Leney)
  • 4 July (Dibden Purlieu): Mosquitos in the New Forest (Alan Pickford)
  • 13 to 14 June (Buckler’s Hard): The Buckler’s Hard Wartime Weekend (Festival event)
  • 10 June (Brockenhurst): Operation Pimento: My Great-Grandfather’s Great Escape (Adam Hart)
  • 6 June (Dibden Purlieu): Southampton & D-Day: The Greatest Achievement of All (Andy Skinner)
  • 20 May (Brockenhurst): My Flying Boat War (Richard Hodgkinson)
  • 3 May (Dibden Purlieu): Noor Inayat Khan: A Spy Trained in Beaulieu, Executed in Dachau (Marc Heighway)
  • 15 April (Brockenhurst): Battle of Britain 1935 (Stephen Robson)
  • 4 April (Dibden Purlieu): RAF Old Sarum: A History in Peace & Wartime (Tim Cornish)
  • 1 April (Brockenhurst): The Beaulieu River at War (Marc Heighway)
  • 11 March (Brockenhurst): New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Needs Oar Point (Marc Heighway)
  • 8 March (Dibden Purlieu): PLUTO: Pipeline Under the Ocean (Ivor Ellis)
  • 4 March (Brockenhurst): Noor Inayat Khan: A Spy Descended from Royalty, Trained in Beaulieu, Executed in Dachau (Marc Heighway)
  • 18 February (Brockenhurst): New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Lymington (Marc Heighway)
  • 11 February (Brockenhurst): New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Lymington (Marc Heighway)
  • 4 February (Brockenhurst): New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Beaulieu (Marc Heighway)
  • 14 January (Brockenhurst): New Forest WW2 Airfield Series: RAF Beaulieu (Marc Heighway)
  • 3 January (Dibden Purlieu): Lucy Houston: The Lady Who Saved The Nation (Colin van Geffen)

2025
  • 6 December (Dibden Purlieu): The Road to Victory: Preparing for D-Day on the South Coast (Stephen Fisher)
  • 1 November (Dibden Purlieu): My Uncle James Nicolson: The Battle of Britain VC (Jim Nicolson)
  • 4 October (Dibden Purlieu): D-Day Landing Craft (Andrew Whitmarsh)
  • 6 September (Dibden Purlieu): Louis Strange: The Dorset Biggles (Tony Otton)
  • 2 August (Dibden Purlieu): What We Can Learn From Pillboxes (Chris Kolonko-Weet)
  • 5 July (Dibden Purlieu): RAF Lymington: An American Airfield in the New Forest (Marc Heighway)
  • 8 June (Dibden Purlieu): The Story of the Schneider Trophy: Air Races 1913 to 1931 (Colin van Geffen)
  • 16 May (East Boldre): Returning a UK-Built Mosquito to the Skies (Alan Pickford)
  • 3 May (Dibden Purlieu): The Race to Prevent Hitler Getting an Atomic Bomb (Peter Power)
  • 18 April (East Boldre): Spitfire: Hampshire’s Iconic Aeroplane (Paul Beaver)
  • 21 March (East Boldre): Hidden in Plain Sight: Reminders of WW2 in the New Forest (Marc Heighway)
  • 1 March (Dibden Purlieu): HMS Agamemnon: Navigating the Legend (Mary Montagu-Scott)
  • 21 February: (East Boldre): Wings Over the Forest: The New Forest’s Aviation Pioneers (Marc Heighway)
  • 1 February (Dibden Purlieu): Violette Szabo GC: Carve Her Name With Pride (Jeremy Prescott)
  • 17 January (East Boldre): Winkle: The Extraordinary Life of Britain’s Greatest Pilot (Paul Beaver)
  • 4 January (Dibden Purlieu): Wings Over the Forest: The New Forest’s Aviation Pioneers (Marc Heighway)

2024
  • 21 December (Dibden Purlieu): A Tale of Two Extraordinary British Agents (Peter Power)
  • 7 December (Dibden Purlieu): Forgotten Armour: Tank Warfare in the Burma Campaign (Jack Bowsher)
  • 23 November (Dibden Purlieu): Battle Over the Forest (Richard Reeves)
  • 15 November (East Boldre): A Tale of Two Extraordinary British Agents (Peter Power)
  • 2 November (Dibden Purlieu): Southampton’s Darkest Hour: The Blitz (Andy Skinner)
  • 18 October (East Boldre): LCT 7074: Saving D-Day’s Last Landing Craft Tank (Stephen Fisher)
  • 5 October (Dibden Purlieu): History of RAF Beaulieu (Marc Heighway)
  • 20 September (East Boldre): The Beaulieu River at War (Marc Heighway)
  • 7 September (Dibden Purlieu): The Beaulieu River at War (Marc Heighway)
  • 17 August (Dibden Purlieu): The EIGHTH Aircrew (Colin van Geffen)
  • 3 August (Dibden Purlieu): SOE: The Secret Saboteurs of WW2 (Peter Power)
  • 6 July (Dibden Purlieu): Sword Beach: The Untold Story of D-Day’s Forgotten Victory (Stephen Fisher)
  • 14 June (East Boldre): SOE: The Secret Saboteurs of WW2 (Peter Power)
  • 1 June (Dibden Purlieu): The Waterside at War (Marc Heighway)
  • 17 May (East Boldre): The New Forest Auxiliary Units: aka Churchill’s Secret Army (Will Ward)
  • 19 April (East Boldre): Stoney Cross: From Gliders to Lightning Strikes (Simon Daniels)
  • 6 April (Dibden Purlieu): The Logistical Build-Up to D-Day (Chris Barrington Brown)
  • 16 March (East Boldre): The Logistical Build-Up to D-Day (Chris Barrington Brown)
  • 10 March (Dibden Purlieu): Needs Oar Point: A Story Rarely Told (Marc Heighway)
  • 16 February (East Boldre): Needs Oar Point: A Story Rarely Told (Marc Heighway)
  • 19 January (East Boldre): My Flying Boat War (Richard Hodgkinson)

2023
  • 15 December (East Boldre): History of RAF Beaulieu (Marc Heighway)
  • 17 November (East Boldre): The Jutland Survivor in Portsmouth Harbour (Stephen Fisher)
  • 20 October (East Boldre): History of RAF Beaulieu (Marc Heighway)
  • 15 September (East Boldre): Remember the Regulars (Chris Kolonko-Weet)
  • 16 June (East Boldre): An Evening on the Home Front (Dale Johnson, Marc Heighway, Pete Harrod, & John Wareham)
  • 19 May (East Boldre): Building Spitfires Without a Factory (Alan Matlock)
  • 21 April (East Boldre): Southampton: From Blitz to D-Day (Jake Simpkin)
  • 17 March (East Boldre): Calshot: The RNAS Years (Colin van Geffen)
  • 17 February (East Boldre): The Lumberjills: Britain’s Forgotten Army (Joanna Foat)
  • 20 January (East Boldre): Special Operations Executive & The Beaulieu Finishing School (Nick Saunders)
2022
  • 14 October (East Boldre): The Road to Victory: Preparing for D-Day on the South Coast (Stephen Fisher)
  • 2 to the 5 of June (East Boldre): RAF Beaulieu History Exhibition over 3 days