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Yes, I'm still following this thread and would be interested in any details you may have.

Thanks!

More great work Suz.

My own amateur searches suggest Albert E's father was Thomas Edward Stokes (b.1831)  and mother Selina Guest (b.1870) , and that Albert E was born sometime 1894/5, but I don't know the place.

There doesn't seem to be anyone on the 1911 census for the Aston area that would fit his age. Of course, it is possible that he was born in London or somewhere else if, as I understand, the family were moneyed and had more than one residence.

If these 'facts' are correct they make interesting reading: Thomas was already an elderly man by the time he married young Selina...if the family were well to-do, I wonder how Albert E's marriage to a Maltster's daughter went down?! Of course, I could be barking up the wrong tree, and am getting slightly off my original purpose, but fascinating stuff!

I'm trying to find out any details of the military service of Flight Sergeant Albert Thomas Armstrong Stokes, enlisted 1939, discharged from service 1941 or 42.

Medals: The 1939-45 Star, The Atlantic Star, Defence Medal, War Medal, King's Badge.

This may nor may not be his service no: 956161 T/SGT

Fragments of anecdotes I can recall:
Albert had taken flying lessons shortly before before WWII broke out, and enlisted in the RAF at age 19 or so, serving as a Flight Sergeant until being injured out sometime in 1942 or earlier. I believe he flew or trained in Fairy Battles and then mostly Wellington bombers. He was involved in two crashes twice, one in France and one in Northumberland; I think both were Wellington's.

The crash in France left Albert and his crew not far from the coast. The story (half told, half remembered), was that they made it to the beach on foot after making radio contact with a British vessel. The captain (an Irishman, not certain of the name, possibly Patrick Kelly), went down to the beach to ask a French fisherman to take them out to sea to the waiting British vessel, but the fisherman called out to the German guards patrolling on the cliff tops. The captain shot the fisherman with his Webley service revolver, and the rest of the crew rushed out of cover and got in the boat. Amazingly, they got away without harm.

The second crash landing in Northumberland ended Albert's military service, as he was injured with shrapnel close to the spine. The only other information I have about this period of his life was that the Irish captain and Albert were the only two servicemen in the squadron from those that had enlisted in 1939 who survived the war. Tragically, shortly after de-mob, Kelly (if that was his name) was apparently killed in a traffic accident (vague details of being knocked down by a bus possibly on the Tottenham Court Road? in 1945).

If anyone can add to the fragments of this story with their own I'd love to hear from you. I particularly would like to find out the squadron number, and the names of the other members of Albert's crew, especially the captain.

A long shot, but thanks in advance.

the 1944 death reg. would fit the jigsaw puzzle perfectly.

As I recall, Albert TA was in convalescence for some years after being injured out of the war, and the family thought he'd died (why there was no contact is a mystery I haven't even begun to address). At any rate, when Albert finally showed up he learned his father had passed away, and then disputes over the estate, which had apparently been settled, began.

I guess I really need the cert's to be sure about the mother and father names.