The Unaccounted Project: RAF and WAAF casualties from enemy action on the home front

[markpeelgb]

Having had a good deal of help from this wonderful forum in building my own database of RAF and WAAF personnel who died as a result of enemy action on the home front, I hope to contribute information I have gained from my own work to this project.

To make a start:

424490 Aircraftwoman 2nd Class Gertrude Emily Ellner (13 February 1941): based on burial and other records, ACW2 Ellner was killed at 53 Borthwick Road, Hendon, by a very large bomb that also killed 78 other people in Argyle, Borthwick and Ravenstone Roads. The incident is described in various places, including the second volume of The Blitz: Then and Now.

[jonheyworth]

Thank you Mark,

Every one is one less . I’m sure Jagan will pick up any updates you make !

Cheers

Jon

[markpeelgb]

922882 AC2 Basil Thomas Mitchell, age 19.

Based on his burial record, and information from the AIR81 provided by www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk, AC2 Mitchell was injured in an air raid at Church Fenton Aerodrome on 28 October 1940 and died in hospital at York on 1 November 1940.

[Jagan]

Thanks Mark, for joining in the party!. Will keep getting the updates from this thread..

[markpeelgb]

Thanks Jagan: glad I can be of help. I have several more to post in the next few days.

[markpeelgb]

1157195 Aircraftman 1st Class William Edwin Ronald Few, who died on 14 November 1940.

An article in the North Devon Journal (21 November 1940) reports that members of a former Ilfracombe family were killed in air raid on London. As well as Albert and Fanny Parkhouse and their son Charles, their "nephew Ronnie Few" also died. Based on information for the Parkhouse family from the Civilian War Dead register, and his date of death, this confirms that AC1 Few was injured in this incident, on November 12 at a shelter at 184 Wandsworth Road in Lambeth, and died two days later in hospital.

[markpeelgb]

1325939 Aircraftman 2nd Class Thomas Grainger JEFFERSON

A report in the Essex Newsman, 22 February 1941, confirms that Aircraftman 2nd Class Jefferson was killed in an air raid at Braintree, Essex, on 14 February 1941. The report states that he died alongside 'his girl', Miss Daphne Prior, whose entry in the Civilian War Dead roll indicates that she died at Coggeshall Road, Braintree.

[markpeelgb]

1200688 Aircraftman 2nd Class Thomas Edward HARDIMAN

The ORB for 903 Balloon Squadron shows that AC2 Hardiman was killed as a result of enemy action at Camberwell Green in the London borough of Camberwell on 29 December 1940. While this raid is well-known for the fire damage inflicted on the City of London, there were also heavy casualties south of the river; AC2 Hardiman was one of seventy people killed in Camberwell by this raid.

[markpeelgb]

1191465 Aircraftman 2nd Class John Thomas BENNETT
1104776 Aircraftman 1st Class Joseph Sidney HEMLEY
743644 Leading Aircraftman Herbert Arthur HILL
313188 Sergeant William NEWELL
799787 Leading Aircraftman Joseph WOOLGAR

These five airmen's deaths were registered in Chichester, making RAF Tangmere the most likely location. In their history of Tangmere (Tangmere, Famous Royal Air Force Fighter Station, An Authorised History), Reginald Byron and David Coxon provide details from the station ORB confirming that five airmen were killed in an air raid at Tangmere in the early morning of 9 April 1941, when two barrack blocks were damaged.

[markpeelgb]

976241 Leading Aircraftman Robert TOOLE

LAC Toole's death is registered at Sodbury (Gloucestershire) and while I have not located any direct statement that he was killed in the air raid on the aerodrome at Filton on 11 April 1941, it seems a reasonable deduction. Two other airmen died in that raid, and the notice of LAC Toole's death in the Lancashire Evening Post on 19 April uses the term 'suddenly', which in other examples covered in my research was used as a kind of euphemism for 'killed by bombing' in death and funeral notices. The station ORB has not yet been digitised, but perhaps someone who has seen it can confirm whether or not this deduction is accurate.