Biggin Hill is a wartime RAF station whose importance in the story comes through the people who travel between it and Emma’s home in Belgrave Square. Robin is stationed there, and David Amory arrives as a new officer; their visits bring the risks and camaraderie of wartime service into the family’s domestic life, while David’s connection to the base leads to his marriage to Daisy.

Wartime Setting

The story places Biggin Hill within the pressures of the Second World War, when young RAF pilots faced dangerous service and Emma feared for Robin, Tony Barkstone, Bryan O’Neill, and their fellow airmen. The Battle of Britain and the continuing air raids form the wider context for the pilots’ absences, brief leaves, and visits home. Biggin Hill is not depicted through a detailed account of its buildings or operations; its meaning is carried chiefly by its role as a station from which the young men come and to which they return.

Robin and the Visits to Belgrave Square

In 1942, Robin comes up from Biggin Hill with friends from the 111th Squadron. When hotels are full, he asks Emma to let the airmen stay at Belgrave Square. She welcomes them, opening the family home to the young pilots even as their presence reminds her of the dangers they face. Their visits make Biggin Hill more than a distant posting: it is the source of a lively, recurring company whose leave brings laughter into a house shaped by wartime anxiety.

David Amory and Daisy

At Christmas, Robin arrives with David Amory, a twenty-four-year-old newcomer to Biggin Hill who is already described as a war hero. Emma notices that David’s appearance and manner recall Paul McGill, and she watches as he and Daisy become drawn to one another. After the holidays David becomes a regular visitor, sometimes accompanying Robin and sometimes arriving alone. Emma comes to respect his integrity, intelligence, and gentleness, and approves of him as a partner for Daisy.

In May 1943, shortly after Daisy’s eighteenth birthday, David asks Emma’s permission to marry her. Emma initially protests that Daisy is young, but quickly turns to asking when they plan to wed. Their quiet wartime wedding takes place the following weekend. After a one-night honeymoon at the Ritz Hotel, David returns to Biggin Hill while Daisy goes back to her mother’s home. Later, when Daisy gives birth, Emma tells her that David is thrilled and has secured a twenty-four-hour pass to come to London the next day.

Narrative Significance

Biggin Hill gives the wartime plot a recurring passage between military duty and family life. Robin’s visits bring his squadron’s companionship into Emma’s household; David’s posting supplies the setting for his growing closeness to Daisy and underscores the interruptions imposed by service. His return to the station after the wedding, followed by his leave for the birth of his child, makes the rhythm of departure and return part of the couple’s early family life. Through these connections, the place links wartime danger with the continuance of ordinary relationships and new generations.