RAF High Wycombe

RAF High Wycombe
Walters Ash, Buckinghamshire in England
Aerial view of RAF High Wycombe.
Non sibi
(Latin for 'Not for ourselves')[1]
RAF High Wycombe is located in Buckinghamshire
RAF High Wycombe
RAF High Wycombe
Shown within Buckinghamshire
Coordinates51°40′53″N 000°48′07″W / 51.68139°N 0.80194°W / 51.68139; -0.80194
TypeRAF non-flying station
Site information
OwnerMinistry of Defence
OperatorRoyal Air Force
Controlled byRAF Air Command
WebsiteOfficial website
Site history
Built1938 (1938)
In use1938 – present
Garrison information
Current
commander
Group Captain Philip Arnold
Occupants

Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed to house RAF Bomber Command in the late 1930s. The station is also the headquarters of the European Air Group and the United Kingdom Space Command.

The location of the station was originally suggested by Wing Commander Alan Oakeshott when the Air Ministry was seeking a new, secure, site for Bomber Command away from London. Wing Commander Oakeshott was killed in combat in 1942 and is commemorated on the Naphill War Memorial and in the name of the station's welfare centre, opened in 2011.

The motto of RAF High Wycombe in Latin is 'Non Sibi', which translates as 'not for ourselves'.

  1. ^ Pine, L.G. (1983). A dictionary of mottoes (1 ed.). London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 156. ISBN 0-7100-9339-X.