Formed on 1 March 1916, No 45 (Reserve) Squadron celebrated its 90th Anniversary in 2006. The Squadron has served all over the world, notably in Egypt and Iraq, where in 1922 it adopted the nickname 'The Flying Camels'. This was chosen along with the winged camel motif, as an appropriate identity of a squadron acting as the 'ship of the desert' flying the Baghdad to Cairo mail route. It was also a
way of capitalising on the outstanding reputation if the Squadron gained whilst flying the Sopwith Camel during the latter part of the First World War. Pursuing the theme of identification, it was at the same time that the Squadron aircraft were all given names. A Flight elected to use names beginning with the letter 'A' while B Flight adopted the name of the trawlers in Kipling's war time poem 'Minesweepers'. The name of each aircraft was made into brass letters, about 3 inches tall, then mounted on polished wooden batons and fixed to either side of the nose of their Vickers Vernon aircraft. Later in the era it became common for the aircraft to have either a name beginning with the letter 'V' or one drawn from Greek mythology. Unfortunately, while many of the names are known it has not been possible to link them all to specific aircraft. As part of the 90th Anniversary celebrations the King Airs received one of the following names:
Assyrian, Aurora, Golden Gain, Morpheus, Stormcock, Vagabond and Valkyrie. These names can all be identified with previous Squadron aircraft; we still have one of Golden Gain's name plates mounted in our crew room; and Valkyrie was the personal aircraft of 'Bomber' Harris in the latter half of his tour as Officer Commanding 45 Squadron.
