Here I am on a sunny Sunday afternoon in a charming cemetery
across which drifted the sounds of a nearby school summer fete. Sadly the story
of the man I’d come to find is solemn - a soldier who was awarded a Victoria Cross
for bravery yet died at just 25 (the youngest from World War II.)
John was born in Paisley and joined the Royal
Air Force as the World War II started. He was a wireless operator and gunner
for No. 83 Squadron who flew bombers.
On 15th
September 1940 this 18-year-old was aboard a Handley Page Hampden bomber. They
had flown over Antwerp, Belgium and destroyed German barges. Suddenly the
aircraft was hammered by intense anti-aircraft fire. The rear gunner and
navigator jumped out. John could have followed by dropping through the bottom
escape hatch but he remained to try to extinguish the fire. He tried with two
extinguishers for ten minutes and then with his bare hands. While this was
happening thousands of rounds of ammunition exploded in all directions and he
was almost blinded by intense heat. The aluminium sheet metal floor he stood on
melted away leaving just the cross bearers. He turned on his oxygen supply
despite his hands, face and eyes being burnt. He crawled forward and found the
navigator had bailed out. However he found his log and maps and handed these to
the pilot who returned the plane safely.
A year later John
contracted tuberculosis which was probably brought on by weakness from severe
burns. He was discharged from the air force with full disability pension but
this wasn’t enough to support his wife and three daughters. An aunt lent him a
car and he started taxi driving however, at just 22, his health was so bad the
car was returned.
Aged 25 he
spent four months at Markfield Sanatorium in
Leicester but died. This man deserved a hearty salute. Who knows how long he
would have lived had the aircraft not been shot at that night? How nourished
would his wife and daughters lives have been should John have lived a long
healthy life? His headstone is inscribed, “Courageous Duty Done In Love, He
Serves His Pilot Now Above.”
Ironically his
wife Janet Hannah also died also as a result of burns. Aged 83 she had fallen
over in her garden on a hot day. She was unable to move, suffered horrendous
sunburn and later died.
See him here…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpFgehSyuL4
Touching the “VC” and there it is on
the left…poor lad, just 25…