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General => Armed Forces => World War Two => Topic started by: Davedrave on Tuesday 18 February 25 18:57 GMT (UK)
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I would appreciate help with a bit of a mystery. I have seen this gravestone in Humberstone churchyard, Leicester, to Sgt Pilot Harold Day, killed in action, October 2nd 1940, aged 27. What surprised me is that the headstone looks like a private one, quite different from a CWGC pattern. (It depicts a plane at the top left.) I have found Harold Day on the CWGC website, and he served in the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 44 Squadron.
I'm assuming that he is buried in the plot, rather than its being a cenotaph. Could I find any more about the circumstances of his death, and is it unusual for him not to have a CWGC headstone?
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Leicester Mercury
Leicester, Leicestershire
Fri, 4 Oct 1940
Page 5
(with a photograph)
https://www.newspapers.com/article/leicester-mercury/166097243/
Leicester Evening Mail
Leicester, Leicestershire
Fri, 4 Oct 1940
Page 12
https://www.newspapers.com/article/leicester-evening-mail/166097393/
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He was the pilot of Handley Page Hampden X2965 which crashed in the North Sea while on a mission to bomb Cologne.
See:
https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/105940
and https://www.rafcommands.com/database/wardead/details.php?qnum=116593
As regards the headstone, perhaps the family preferred to provide their own. He is certainly commemorated on the CWGC website https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2718878/harold-day/
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Many thanks both for your replies and solving this for me.
Dave :)