THE old airfield at Hamble, to the south east of Southampton, has a long and varied involvement in Hampshire’s aeronautical history.

Even before the First World War Sir Winston Churchill had flown in a ‘water plane’ launched from the banks of The Solent nearby.

Many famous names flew from the airfield in the inter-war period including Amy Johnson and Neville Shute.

During WW2 the site played an important part in repairing more than 2,500 battle-damaged Spitfires but in the post-war years of peace the little grass field was destined to become the second busiest airfield in the whole of the UK, second only to the mighty Heathrow in aircraft movements.

The increased utilisation was due the country’s first dedicated facility for training airline pilots. This civilian equivalent of the RAF’s iconic Cranwell was called The College of Air Training, or CAT for short. Over its 23-year existence CAT selected just under 2,000 young men, to train into airline captains of the future, for the two state airlines BEA and BOAC. When the youthful, qualified pilots joined the airline existing pilots nicknamed them Hamsters because the name echoed their origins at Hamble.

Surprisingly the story of the college and its unique place in British aviation history has never been told in any detail. However, that omission has been remedied by a new book called The CAT and the Hamsters.

It has been written by an ex-Hamble graduate Stuart Logan and it seeks to set the college’s existence within the historical context of pilot training subsequent to the First World War.

CAT and the Hamsters costs £25 and can be purchased online from BookWorld Wholesale at bookworldws.co.uk Stuart, who retired 15 years ago as a senior captain for British Airways, has a wry, easy-to-read style of writing honed from experience writing features for magazines and newspapers. In researching the book, he was granted access to two privately held archives: so many details in the text are made public for the first time. He also interviewed several of the college staff as well as airline colleagues and ex-cadets.

Stuart said: “I wanted the book to be a nice object in its own right and for it to be accessible to readers who were not pilots themselves.” Accordingly, complex-technical explanations are kept to a minimum and the 200 high-quality pages feature over 60 rare, contemporary photographs. Another unique feature is the complete list of all the cadets selected to attend the college. In all it is a must-have for anyone who remembers Hamble or who is interested in aviation.