In Memory of
Robert George Frederick BRYANT
Sergeant
1334545
Navigator/Bomber
90 Squadron
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
who died on
Sunday 28 February 1943
Grave or Reference Panel Number
Plot P. Coll. grave 1-5.
In Memory of
Leonard Joseph HUMPHREY
Sergeant
1395877
Air Gunner
90 Squadron
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
who died on
Sunday 28 February 1943. Age 26
Additional Information
Son of Joseph Victor and Emily Humphrey, of Erith, Kent; husband of Joan Dora Humphrey, of Erith.
Personal Inscription
‘Eternal Rest
Give unto him,
O lord;
May he rest in Peace
Amen’
Grave or Reference Panel Number
Plot P. Coll. grave 1-5.
In Memory of
Edward (Teddy) LEAR
Flying Officer
126018
Navigator
90 Squadron
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
who died on
Sunday 28 February 1943. Age 22
Additional Information
Son of Thomas and Beatrice Lear; husband of Lillian Margaret Lear, of Stockwell, London.
Personal Inscription
‘In memory
Of our dearly beloved ‘Teddy’
Wife Lillian,
Mother, brother and sisters’
Grave or Reference Panel Number
Plot P. Coll. grave 1-5.
In Memory of
Ronald Vivian Steven ROOKE
Sergeant
1376950
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
90 Squadron
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Who died on
Sunday 28 February 1943. Age 22
Additional Information
Son of Claude Stephen and Grace Lillian Rooke, of Hammersmith, London.
Personal Inscription
‘You are ever
in our thoughts,
Darling son and brother’
Grave or Reference Panel Number
Plot P. Coll. grave 1-5.
In Memory of
Vernon Enright SPAIN
Pilot Officer
413499
Pilot
90 (R.A.F.) Squadron
Royal New Zealand Air Force
who died on
Sunday 28 February 1943. Age 29
Additional Information
Son of William Henry and Margaret Mary Spain; husband of Olga M. C. Spain, of Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand.
Grave or Reference Panel Number
Plot P. Coll. grave 1-5.
Robert Bryant, Leonard Humphrey, Sidney Vallance (replaced for the mission by John McGhie, who is not pictured), Vernon Spain, John Jackson, Edward Lear, and Ronald Rooke. | BRENDA KELLY – Women’s Royal Air Force
Cemetery
AVRANCHES COMMUNAL CEMETERY, Manche, France.
Location information
Avranches is a town and sub-prefecture on the west coast of the Cherbourg peninsula.
In June 1940 it was for a few days the Headquarters of “Norman-force”, consisting of 3rd Armoured Brigade, 71st Field Regiment R.A., 157th Infantry Brigade and 52nd Divisional Troop Carrying Coy, R.A.S.C., prior to the departure of all British forces from the peninsula.
The communal cemetery is north-east of the town, on Rue de la Liberté (D7, just south of the N175 bypass road). The entrance is about 180 metres east of the junction of Rue de la Liberté with the D673 road to Granville. In a military plot in the north eastern corner are the graves of four airmen of the Royal Air Force and one airman of the Royal New Zealand Air Force.
Circumstances
At 18:07, on 28 February 1943, the Short Stirling I R9349 WP-‘U’ of 90 Squadron, 3 Group, Bomber Command, took off from RAF Ridgewell, Essex, for a raid on Saint-Nazaire, France. On returning from the raid, at 22:00, the aircraft crashed in a field at La Rebourdinière, old town of Montanel (now in the new town of St James, 23 km south of Avranches). Two RAF Sergeants, John McGHIE (who sustained a dislocated shoulder when his parachute deployed) and John JACKSON, succeeded in baling out before the crash and were taken prisoner. Their five comrades are buried at Avranches (*).
(*) While several military reports describe an in-flight explosion, villagers who lived through World War II described the crash of a low-flying plane. A now-deceased 28-year-old farmer who witnessed the crash left his precious testimony in a video interview. Like many, he remained grateful for pilot Vernon Spain’s final maneuver: “If he had landed 20 meters closer, the whole village would have been killed.”
© The Commonwealth War Graves Commission
© The National Archives
© RAF WWII 38 Group Squadrons Reunited