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31st July 1943On this day:
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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Remembering those who died this day.
- Beck George Henry. Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Buck James. Spr. (d.31st Jul 1943)
- Cobby Arthur Victor Edward. Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Dillicar John Collins. F/Lt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Dillicar John Collins. F/Lt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Edmunds Lewis. Flt.Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Gibbons Anthony James. Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Hetherington William Moffatt Tattersall. Flt.Sgt (d.30th July 1943)
- Ingle Arthur Ray. Lt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Jackson Bernard Lionel. F/O (d.31st July 1943)
- Middleton Kenneth Percy. Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Ramsay Ian Grant. F/Sgt. (d.31st July 1943)
- Thomas Alfred John. P/O. (d.31st July 1943)
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
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Want to know more about the 31st of July 1943? There are:15 items tagged 31st of July 1943 available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Stories from 31st July 1943
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Flt.Sgt. Lewis Edmunds. DFM. Royal Air Force, 150 Squadron. (d.31st July 1943) My dad Lewis Edmunds died in July 1943 only a few months after I was born. He died an awful death, in an iron lung and of polio. A friend said, only a few months ago, that the odds of dying this way must have been very high.
To my young mother his death must have been devastating and she left the air force base where they were living and moved back to her parents in the North of England. Eventually she remarried and in 1959, she and my stepfather and my half sister and I emigrated to NZ.
I knew very little about my dad, except that the warm sheepskin rug in my parent’s room had been brought from Australia by him. I also had his DFM medal, a certificate and gold presentation watch from the local council, his logbook and some newspaper cuttings and photographs that my mother had saved. Sadly, when we came to New Zealand the logbook was given away, but I remember it vividly and I would love to have it back. In 1985 I visited England on holiday and I was determined to visit his family and record his story, so I joined the NZ Genealogy Society to learn how to research my families.
Lewis went to Western Australia in 1929 at that time he was only aged 18, and it must have seemed a big adventure. He was also ‘honest, steady and industrious’ according to the vicar who wrote a glowing testimony for him. It also helped that he had an aunt and uncle living there, and he was able to stay with them for a while. He returned to England, on an Australian passport, in 1935. I suspect that it was only the Depression that sent him home. He learned bricklaying but later enlisted in the RAF in 1938, moving up the ranks and training to be an Air Gunner. He was posted around Lincolnshire and in May 1941, while returning from a sortie to Boulogne, the Wellington Bomber crashed into a hill near Halstead and he was the sole survivor, though his back was broken.
After many years I was able to get the commendation that his Station Commander had written, before his DFM was announced. The investiture took place at Buckingham Palace on the 18 May 1943. A week before he died, my mum said that they were going to a wedding, dad had the flu' but he said "I am going to this wedding if it kills me". The following day mum called the Base doctor and Dad was admitted to the hospital in Donnington, where he was diagnosed with polio, and he died the following weekend.
Hilary Ramshaw
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Flt.Sgt William Moffatt Tattersall Hetherington. Royal Air Force, 78 Squadron. (d.30th July 1943) Flight Sergeant William Moffatt Tattersall Hetherington (b.1914) of Regina was Killed in Action on the 30th July 1943 and is buried at Hamburg Cemetery, Ohlsdorf, Germany. He was serving with No. 78 Squadron RAF as a navigator. Hetherington's Halifax went down at Bad Oldsloe, southwest of Lubeck. He was the son of William Henry Hetherington a grocer and his wife Emma nee. Tattersall. He left a wife Esther Ellen nee. Percy and daughter Beverley Anne. William was a graduate of Haultain School and Scott Collegiate. He was a grocery broker when he enlisted at Regina in 1941. He had a younger sister Thelma Hetherington. He was a kind-hearted and loyal man, he was married, and his family came from England. He served his life but his spirit lives on.Anonymous
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Sgt. Arthur Victor Edward Cobby. Royal Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) Sgt Cobby served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. IngleAubrey Sinden
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F/Lt. John Collins Dillicar. North New Zealand Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) F/Lt Dillicar served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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F/Lt. John Collins Dillicar. Royal New Zealand Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) F/Lt Dillicar served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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F/O Bernard Lionel Jackson. Royal New Zealand Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) F/O Jackson served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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Sgt. George Henry Beck. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) Sgt Beck served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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F/Sgt. Ian Grant Ramsay. Royal New Zealand Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) F/Sgt Ramsay served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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Sgt. Kenneth Percy Middleton. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) Sgt Middleton served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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Sgt. Anthony James Gibbons. Royal Canadian Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) Sgt Gibbons served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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Lt. Arthur Ray Ingle. DFC South African Air Force, 15 Sqdn.. (d.31st July 1943) Lt Ingle served with 15 Squadron. His Stirling bomber EF428 LS-N, took off from Mildenhall at 22.46 hours for operations to Remscheid. The aircraft crashed at Kleinbroich, 9km east of Monchengladbach. All the crew except for F/Lt Dillicar, who is buried in Rheinburg War Cemetery, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The full crew were:
Sgt A.V.E. Cobby
F/Lt J.C. Dillicar, pilot
F/O B.L. Jackson
Sgt G.H. Beck
F/Sgt I.G. Ramsay
Sgt P.K. Middleton
Sgt A.J. Gibbons
Lt A.R. Ingle
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P/O. Alfred John Thomas. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 75 Squadron. (d.31st July 1943) Jack Thomas was the pilot of a Stirling bomber which came down over Remscheid on the night of 30th/31st of July 1943. He kept the plane aloft while the survivors of a direct hit bailed out. Two of his crew were held nearby and asked to see the body of an airman who was found in the aircraft which had gone down in a lake. They were not allowed to do so. Those two men were held as PoWs till the end of WWII. They both visited Jack's sister and husband in Chelmsford to tell them what had happened to Jack. Paddy Stewart, a crew member, moved to Canada. Crumpty, an Australian was a crew member too.
Jack was born on 8th January 1919 in Pembroke Dock, Wales and moved to Bermuda in 1928/9 where his father had obtained work in the Dockyard. His name is on the panels at Runnymede. Although he died before I was born, he was a very real presence in our family life and with those who knew him.
Lyn M Vaughan
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Spr. James Buck. British Army, 560th Field Coy. Royal Engineers. (d.31st Jul 1943) I purchased a cased, mounted set of 'Badge and Bombs' comprising cap, collar and shoulder badges. The case has the trademark of Frank Pricket Watchmaker and Jeweller Finkle Street Sedbergh. Behind the mount is a letter on lined paper written in pencil from Jim Buck to Dearest Glad leaving the case in her care as a memento. Jim gives his address as Sapper J Buck, 8th Independence Company, Old Prep School, Sedbergh, West Riding Yorkshire. From research, Jim served with 560 Field Company in Malaya and was a POW in Burma working on the infamous railway. Jim died on 31 July 1943 and lies in Kanchanaburi Cemetery in Thailand. Les Smith
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