The Wartime Memories Project - The Second War

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207178 Sgt. John Alfred Leslie McLean RAFVR 9 Squadron (d.29 September 1941) John was my late mother's sweetheart. He was killed, aged 21, in a Wellington Mk 1C - Operation Genoa, 29 September 1941, and is buried in Milan War Cemetery, along with the other crew. All through my childhood I was taken by my mother to visit John's mother, never quite understanding who this lady was. Only in later life did my mother tell me. She never forgot John, despite 62 years of marriage to my father, and always kept his photograph and letters. I now remember him for her on the aniversary of his death, and on Remembrance Day I place a poppy on a war memorial for him. My brother was given John's name as a second name, and I was given Lesley (the female version of Leslie)as a second name, in his memory. I have never visited John's grave (though I was once close by without knowing) but this is from a poem I wrote about John, how he affected my life: ...I wish I'd known, then, that you were buried there. I would have visited your airman's grave, from where that precious marble chip my mother always kept, had come. You were only twenty-one and if not for the war, might have become my father, but your plane was torn from the sky, denying you that chance. Each November Mother wore a poppy, took me on the fog-swaddled Woolwich ferry to see your mother, offering her a grandchild for a while. This ritual helped to keep your memory alive, though every trip, it seemed, dissolved in mist and tears. Father gave me part of your name, but he never came on all those journeys we made across the river. Jacqui Rochford Add to this record.  Related Content: Can you help us to add to our records? Add a record to our website. The names and stories on this website have been submitted by their relatives and friends. If your relations are not listed please add their names so that others can read about them Did you or your relatives live through the Second World War? Do you have any photos, newspaper clippings, postcards or letters from that period? Have you researched the names on your local or war memorial? Were you or your relative evacuated? Did an air raid affect your area? If so please let us know. Help us to build a database of information on those who served both at home and abroad so that future generations may learn of their sacrifice. Contact us. Celebrate your own Family History Celebrate by honouring members of your family who served in the Secomd World War both in the forces and at home. We love to hear about the soldiers, but also remember the many who served in support roles, nurses, doctors, land army, muntions workers etc. Please use our Family History resources to find out more about your relatives. Then please send in a short article, with a photo if possible, so that they can be remembered on these pages.

The free section of the Wartime Memories Project website is run by volunteers. We have been helping people find out more about their relatives wartime experiences since 1999 by recording and preserving recollections, documents, photographs and small items. The website is paid for out of our own pockets, library subscriptions and from donations made by visitors. The popularity of the site means that it is far exceeding available resources and we currently have a huge backlog of submissions. If you are enjoying the site, please consider making a donation, however small to help with the costs of keeping the site running. Hosted by: The Wartime Memories Project Website is archived for preservation by the British Library Copyright MCMXCIX - MMXXIV - All Rights Reserved We do not permit the use of any content from this website for the training of LLMs or for use in Generative AI, it also may not be scraped for the purpose of creating other websites.