Earlier this month, Richard attended a performance of 'Seizing the Skies', a new play written by Oscar Aleman and Richard Moon and performed by the Bedford Drama Company to mark the anniversary of the R.101 air ship disaster.
After the show, Richard Fuller MP said:
I thoroughly enjoyed the performance of 'Seizing the Skies' at The Place Theatre in Bedford.
This original, locally written play tells the story of the airship R.101 and was inspiring, poignant and extremely well performed.
As a little known side note, there is a plaque set into the floor of Westminster Hall in Parliament, dedicated to the 48 crew and passengers who lost their lives on that fatal maiden flight in 1930 when the R101 crashed over France. Although it commemorates such a tragic event, I have always had a certain pride that alongside plaques for Kings, Queens and Prime Ministers down the ages, it is the only one dedicated to an event from a single Parliamentary constituency - North Bedfordshire.
The airship R.101 was designed and built at the Royal Airship Works, Cardington to shorten journey times to the Dominions. It crashed near Beauvais in northern France at 2.08am on 5th October 1930 while on a proving flight to Karachi. After hitting the ground, the airship caught fire, killing 48 of the 54 persons on board
The bodies of the victims were brought back to London on 7th October. On 10th October the 48 coffins, each draped in a Union Jack, lay in state in Westminster Hall while thousands of people filed past. On the same day, a Memorial Service was held at St Paul's Cathedral, attended by HRH The Prince of Wales and the Prime Minister, with a Requiem Mass taking place at Westminster Cathedral.
On Saturday, 11th October, the victims were taken through crowded streets to Euston Station where a special train was waiting to return them to Bedford. That afternoon, the 48 dead of the R.101 were laid to rest in a mass grave at the parish church of St Mary, Cardington, where the RAF ensign flown from the tail of the R.101 remains on display to this day.
A brass plaque was laid on the floor of Westminster Hall to mark the lying-in-state in November 2014.
