The competition to design a new window for our 601 Squadron Room featuring the badge of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force has been won by 29 year-old Chad Kenney, a serving member of the RAF.

This is the third contemporary piece of stained glass artwork that we have commissioned in recent years and we are keen to continue the inclusion of bold, large-scale new work in a secular building. The British Society of Master Glass Painters are delighted to help us achieve our ambitions in a drive to take the making of traditional stained glass windows off the Red List of Endangered Crafts.

Chad was one of five emerging artists who were shortlisted to produce a design for the large 2.4m x 0.9m window. Each artist was given a design fee and paired with an experienced stained glass mentor. He wrote, "I feel I am a bit of a wild card being from the military side of the joint project and being a designer not a glass painter, but this allows me to give an alternative perspective to the project. The aim of the design is to pay homage to the people, past and present, that make up the RAuxAF in its centennial year." Chad will be collaborating with his mentor, Deborah Lowe, to realise the design in glass. 

The designs were judged blind by a panel of experts from the RAF Club, the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and the British Society of Master Glass Painters. The standard was very high and the judges were impressed with the creativity and skills that each emerging artist brought to the project.

The judging panel was chaired by Group Captain Jim Beldon, Chair of the Club’s Arts and Heritage Committee. He remarked that: ‘The brief we gave to the artists was specific in one regard only: to include the Royal Auxiliary Air Force crest. The imagination and professional artistry each candidate then applied to their submissions were simply breathtaking, and any one of the proposals would have been a beautiful addition to the Club’s growing collection of stained glass artworks. We considered the winner’s submission to have best captured the spirit of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force and its people throughout its history, and we are thrilled that Air Specialist 1 Kenney’s work will grace the Club later this year.’

The window design will now evolve based on the feedback provided by the judging panel. Once created and installed, the window will be unveiled by HRH The Duke of Gloucester KG GCVO, who is president of the British Society of Master Glass Painters and is Air Commodore-in-Chief of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.