(taken from source) It was probably logical that Dover would acquire a seaplane base but unlike other sites where such a base could be co-located with the landplane field, this was not the case at Dover, as both airfields were on top of cliffs. In response to the growing U-boat threat, two RNAS seaplanes, both Wright navy-types, were displaced to Dover and located in the harbour – and the navy promptly requisitioned the skating rink on Marine Parade as a shed for the aircraft. A slipway was built and Dover/Marine Parade was in business. It was a far from ideal site and it was not long before the operational task had been taken over by other stations, although Dover was retained as a training and repair depot. Additional buildings were erected along the parade, as was a second slipway, and new naval seaplane-pilots spent four weeks at Dover before transferring to the main operational station at Dunkirk. These roles, including modification and development work, continues until the RAF took over in April 1918, by which time an increased operational requirement to counter the German U boats in the Channel meant that 233 Squadron based its No. 407 Flight, operation Short 184’s, at Marine Parade. The Flight remained in place after the war but eventually disbanded in May 1919, although the buildings at Marine Parade may have been out of use before that point. Marine Parade was also home to HQ No. 5 Group from April 1918 to May 1919, this command organisation having administrative responsibility for units in the Kent and Dunkirk area, for which it also operated and advanced HQ at Spycker Camp. Dover harbour continued to appear in the RAF’s list of seaplane alighting areas into the 1930’s, but it was never again a permanent station. (1)

One building, the central offices, of the original seaplane base still remains, whilst two of the purpose built hangars were demolished in the 1920s and the requisitioned skating rink in the 1980s. The skating rink and the central office building were built in 1910 after the earlier Victorian Guildford Battery had been demolished. (2)

<1> Ken Delve, 2005, The Military airfields of Britain; Southern England, Kent, Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex (Monograph). SKE31935.

<2> http://www.1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t105582.html, 2008, The great war forum (Website). SKE31936.