Why JFK flew to Lincolnshire for a deeply personal visit

BBC News

28-06-2025

US president John F Kennedy was one of the most influential figures in the 20th Century and his assassination in 1963 was a watershed moment in American and world history. Just months before that tragedy, he embarked on his final overseas trip, packed with diplomatic talks with world leaders and ground-breaking oratory. What is less well-known is an undisclosed detour to a Lincolnshire air station for a deeply personal visit to a quiet English village.The month of June 1963 was a punishing one for John F Kennedy.Beginning in Berlin – where he delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner speech" – he went on to Ireland, then the UK, before heading to Italy and a trip to see Pope Paul VI at the Vatican.The national media followed his every move except, it seems, for a small detour he made in Britain on 29 June. One sunny day, Air Force One landed on the runway at RAF Waddington, near Lincoln. The president stepped out for what was to be a very personal pilgrimage.
Waiting for him on the runway was a welcome party including station commander Gp Capt Finch, the chief constable of Lincolnshire and members of the ground crew. But the president was not there for diplomacy.A US Sikorsky military helicopter then took Kennedy to Derbyshire. There he would visit the grave of his younger sister, Kathleen, who was buried in Edensor church on the Chatsworth estate.She had been married to William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington and heir to the dukedom of Devonshire, but had been tragically killed in a plane crash in 1948.
Christopher Dean, from the RAF Waddington Heritage Centre, explains that the base was chosen because it was the "largest close airfield to Chatsworth House".Although the visit was kept relatively quiet, locals from the Lincoln and Waddington area remember the day Air Force One touched down in the county.Terry Wells, from Waddington, was 12 at the time. "As I recall, he landed on a Saturday so we were not at school. On any other day we would wander about the base freely, but on that day we were not allowed because of the tightened security."I remember the Boeing aircraft landing and the helicopter taking off. There was also a second escort helicopter, but I wasn't sure if that was to confuse people as to which one he was actually in."
In terms of security, although the visit was an addition to the official schedule, planning would have been meticulous, Christopher says."He would not have suddenly popped in unannounced, there would have been a huge itinerary."Peter Cake, another local boy in 1963, recalls how his grandfather, Sidney, an employee of the telephone company that later became BT, had a particular part to play in the security arrangements."He told me that they had secured all the phone lines for JFK's visit so nobody could listen in," he says.Peter even has the letter his grandfather received from the White House thanking him for the role he played that day.
The president's party that day included his sister Jean and his defence secretary Robert McNamara.One man who was present was BBC reporter Sharon Edwards' father, David, who was working in air traffic control at Waddington."My dad always said that when President Kennedy landed at RAF Waddington he was on duty and he was the one that gave permission for the plane to land," Sharon explains.After a few hours the president and his entourage made the return journey to Waddington, where they reembarked on Air Force One and flew on to Sussex to meet Harold Macmillan, the prime minister.
It was not the first time one of the Kennedy family had visited Lincolnshire. In 1938, JFK's father Joseph – then US ambassador to the UK – made his first major speech from the garden of Fydell house in Boston. He stressed the close connections between the Lincolnshire town and Boston in the US, where he was born.During that visit, Kennedy senior also took part in a procession through the town and a service in St Botolph's Church, which is better-known as the Stump, followed by a meal at Boston Guildhall.
Twenty-five years later, and JFK's visit to Lincolnshire would take on even greater significance as the last overseas trip for the president. Just a few months later, he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22.His Lincolnshire stopover left a lasting impression on those who remember it."It's a slice of Lincoln history and my family's history, and the fact that my father told us about it means that it really meant something to him," Sharon says.Listen to more podcasts from the Secret Lincolnshire series.Listen to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.