The Air Historical Branch (AHB) is the historical archive and records service of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. First established in 1919, the AHB was responsible for creating the ''Official History of British Air Operations in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

''. The branch moved from

RAF Bentley Priory RAF Bentley Priory was a non-flying Royal Air Force station near Stanmore in the London Borough of Harrow. It was the headquarters of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain and throughout the Second World War. During the war, two enemy bomb ...

RAF Northolt ("Ready to carry or to fight") , pushpin_map = Greater London , pushpin_label = RAF Northolt , pushpin_map_caption = Shown within Greater London , coordinates = , type = Royal Air Force station , code = , site_area = , height = , owners ...

in 2008 after the closure of the former. The Air Historical Branch is tasked with the maintenance and preservation of the history of the RAF. It is part of the Royal Air Force Centre for Air Power Studies and is headed by

Sebastian Cox Sebastian Cox OBE (born in 1956), is the Head of the Air Historical Branch (AHB) of the Royal Air Force, a specialist archive and history unit based at RAF Northolt, Middlesex, which seeks to maintain and preserve the historical memory of the RAF a ...

Heads of the Air Historical Branch

References

External links

Air Historical Branch website
Royal Air Force {{RAF-stub