The Royal Air Forces Association (also called the RAF Association or RAFA) is the largest single service membership organization and the longest standing registered service charity that provides welfare support to the family of RAF members. Their goal is to "provide friendship, help and support to current and former members of the Royal Air Force and their dependants." It was founded in 1929. As of 2018, the RAF Association had a membership of over 74,000 including active duty RAF personnel, veterans and non-service individuals. They have a UK-wide caseworker network of over 540 volunteer welfare caseworkers and over 500 befrienders, they undertake over 85,000 welfare contacts annually. Their help ranges from simply providing conversation and friendship to preparing and submitting application forms for financial assistance. History At the end of the First World War, a number of Squadron and Unit Associations were formed to enable those who had served together to maintain contact with one another. In 1919, the women who had served with the Royal Air Force in the First World War formed an Old Comrades Association to which members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force were admitted. In 1929, in the Sergeants’ Mess at RAF Andover, three men named Vernon Goodhand, Joe Pearce and Warrant Officer Bartlett met to discuss the formation of a single organisation dedicated to the welfare of serving and ex-serving RAF personnel: one which would replace the many smaller organisations that had grown to keep former servicemen in touch since the end of the First World War. The idea was supported by William Coen, editor of The Planesman, in a series of articles. The inaugural meeting was held on 23 April 1930 at Ye Olde Butler's Head in the City of London where preliminary plans for a national organisation were discussed, with Joe Pearce in the chair. A provisional committee was formed with Air Commodore C R Samson as Chairman, Air Commodore B C H Drew as Vice-Chairman and editor William Coen as Honorary Secretary. The title "Comrades of the Royal Air Forces" was adopted, and three months later in 1930 a provisional committee had been formed called "Comrades of the Royal Air Forces Association" and the first general meeting of the new organisation took place at the Queen’s Hotel, Leicester Square, London. Air Ministry support for the Comrades came in 1933 when the Air Council officially recognised the organisation and Hugh Trenchard, 1st