RAF North Luffenham RAF North Luffenham was a Royal Air Force station in Rutland , England , 1940 - 1998 . It is near to the villages of Edith Weston and North Luffenham . The station was built as a training airfield , opening in 1940 . It was later taken over by 5 Group of RAF Bomber Command as a heavy bomber base , and was expanded by the building of concrete runways later in the war . In 1951 , the station was transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force to become the temporary home of 1 Fighter Wing , the first Canadian NATO base in Europe . 1 Wing moved to Marville , France in 1955 . In late 1955 , No . 228 Operational Conversion Unit , temporarily renamed No . 238 OCU , was detached to North Luffenham from RAF Leeming which was having its runways extended to 7000 ft to accommodate Gloster Javelin s . The OCU remained for over a year before returning to Leeming . From 1959 to 1963 , North Luffenham was the base for PGM - 17 Thor intermediate range ballistic missiles , operated by No . 144 Squadron RAF . The Thor missile site was listed as a Grade II * building in 2011 . In mid - 1964 No . 3 Ground Radio Servicing Squadron was transferred from RAF Norton , Sheffield , Yorkshire . No . 3GRSS was responsible for the third - line maintenance repair of all ground radar and radio communication / navigational and landing aids located at airfields throughout Great Britain and Northern Ireland . In 1963 the RAF Aviation Medical Training Centre ( AMTC ) moved from its original location at RAF Upwood to RAF North Luffenham . The Centre was commanded by a senior RAF Medical Officer who with his medical and technical team were responsible for fitting and instructing aircrew in the use of flying protective clothing and equipment , including partial pressure suits , which kept the pilot conscious in the event of loss of cabin pressure at high altitude . Instruction in medical aspects of high performance aviation included experience of hypoxia and exposure to sudden explosive decompression of an aircraft cabin . This was carried out in a complex of RAF Mark V decompression chambers installed on the site for aircrew training and research purposes . Many of the aircrew medical monitoring techniques , oxygen systems and items of aircrew protective flying clothing developed at the RAF Institute of Aviation Medicine , Farnborough , were assessed by staff of AMTC . From 1965 to 1997 part of the Joint Services Language School was based here . Russian - language graduates of the school were employed at radio monitoring stations located close to the USSR border in order to monitor Russian air - to - ground radio voice traffic during airborne interception / border incursion etc . A plaque to commemorate the Language School was unveiled in 2005 by Air Commodore Bruce Benstead , the last Station Commander at RAF North Luffenham . Recruits from RAF Swinderby competed their fieldcraft training at this base in the 80s and early 90s . Notable former rugby players from RAF North Luffenham include Sir Augustus Walker ( RAF & England ) , Peter Larter ( Northampton & England ) and Martin Whitcombe ( Leicester Tigers & England ' B ' international ) . The station was taken over by the British Army and renamed St George ' s Barracks . As an army base it has been home to battalions of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and the King ' s Own Royal Border Regiment , ( later 3rd Battalion , the Duke of Lancaster ' s Regiment ) . In August 2007 , 16th Regiment Royal Artillery relocated here from the Royal Artillery Barracks , Woolwich . When the RAF vacated the base , the gates from the main entrance were donated to the village of North Luffenham . The gates which bear the station badge were later erected at the entrance to the village ' s recreation ground . External links .