Home > Middlesex > Feltham > The Airman The Airman
Date of photo: 2021	Picture source: Richard Flagg
The Airman was situated at 1 Hanworth Road. This pub closed on 10th December 2018. It later reopened only to close again in March 2023.
Source: Jeff Howe
Reopened in December 2023.
Nikki Williams (January 2024)
During the war, The Airman was almost the only building in one piece next to Hanworth Aerodrome, which was the main testing airfield for auto giros before the war. My mum married a customer, an Australian pilot Van Zuilekom, he was on Hurricanes, all the RAF came to the pub every day. He was shot down. She had my brother who was born at the Airman. She then married my father, Squadron Leader "Jeep" Cable. He was on helicopters, very rare things. Only Igor Sikorski and Count de Sierva made them then. We left to go to Beaulieu Aerodrome, but he was killed as an airworthiness inspector overseeing a test on a Siereva Airhorse triple rotor near Romsey in 1950, and we returned to live at Airman with grandparents. I went to Hounslow College with my brother, we took two buses, via Staines. Feltham was a quiet individual town then. Round pond with tree in the middle, for model boats etc. Cinema. Bear Hotel. Fire station with little lake and swans. Very few cars. Pub used to be packed. Had 3 gardens. One off the rear of pub off the dining room/events room, with full sized piano, a vegetable one, and the round one out the front of the V it was positioned on. The aerodrome was still all there in 1950s. We would play in the buildings. Bomb sites still about. Long time ago now. My grandfather, Reg Rushmore, would have been just in his 50s there. He had pure white hair after he was buried alive for a long time in no mans land in WW1. He was an Old Contemptable, was first in France in 1914 as already in army in India. He entertained the troops with 5 other men, the 4th Division Follies. He came back in 1917 when Irish Fusiliers were diss banded. He would play clarinet in the pub, did huge soliloquys like the Ancient Mariner and The Green Eyed Idol and Eskimo Nell, tap dancing, and conjuring. His conjuring was renowned, Smashing up gold hunters in a drying up cloth on the counter with the wooden mallet from the cellar. Long time ago now. I am probably one ot the last to remember The Airman at its height, its Heyday. Was a beacon then, a brave pub, full of brave people, many whose history ended way back then. Did lot of meals at lunchtimes. They all went down in a dumb waiter to huge warming stainless cabinets . Dumb waiter then went to cellar. When brother was a baby he would be lowered down there when the almost daily bombing began. Pub stayed open in full swing, window tapes were still on in the dining room when i was there in 1950.
Nigel Cable (March 2025)
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Name Dates Comments Nigel Cable 1950/1957 Lived in pub with grand parents Reg and Beat Rushmore..
Other Photos
Beat & Reg Rushmore, publicans, right, at daughters wedding in The Airman, 1940s	Picture source: Nigel Cable
Beat Rushmore, publican, in kitchen, 1940s	Picture source: Nigel Cable
Beat & Reg Rushmore, publicans, right, 1940s	Picture source: Nigel Cable