Searching for a newspaper article

[GillianF]

I have never used the newspaper archives so need a little help, advice.

My brother-in-law recently told me that his mother showed him an obituary in the Daily Telegraph of a man who had died.  The photo referred to him as a Flight Lieutenant (no name remembered) who had just died and I assume he was of some importance.  The photo of him in The Daily Telegraph showed the deceased and standing next to him was my father-in-law as a very young man.  The photo was taken in Tenby and probably late 1942 onwards.  The Flight Lieutenant was said to be a Seaplane Pilot, my father-in-law was in the RAF Marine Division in Tenby in his earliest service days.  My brother-in-law thinks the newspaper article his mother showed him would have been shortly before her death but possibly in a window of September 2007 - October 2010.  It would be lovely to find the article and the photo of my father-in-law as a very young man.

How would I search for this and any clues as to success to find it?

[ShaunJ]

Newspapers.com

https://www.newspapers.com/paper/the-daily-telegraph/27837/?locale=en-GB

It will be difficult to search for it without a name though.

[GillianF]

Thank you for the link.  I will take a look but I do appreciate it will be tricky with no name and quite a wide timescale.

[SouthseaSteel]

Have you tried AI on the picture.  I am amazed at what just Google Lens on my phone will recognise in terms of "public" photos.  If its a photo that is online somewhere, even behind a paywall, it might well recognise the picture.  Its easy to try too.

[GillianF]

Sorry, if I wasn’t clear.  It is the photo that was with the obituary I am looking for because it had my father-in-law as a young, new recruit in it which my husband and brother-in-law want to see.  Father-in-law joined up 15.12.1942 and was in Tenby.  The obituary with the photo showed the deceased as a Flight Lieutenant but I imagine he went on to greater things to have an obituary with photo but we have no name.  I have looked at my father-in-law’s military records but no CO mentioned anywhere.

[SouthseaSteel]

Doh!!

[maddys52]

I use Gale Primary Sources which includes British Library Newspapers. I access from home for free using my Australian National Library card - lots of other libraries around the globe have similar arrangements.

Using "flight lieutenant" as a keyword search and limiting to the Daily Telegraph between 2007 and 2011, there are 100 hits, many of them obituaries - not impossible to look through those to see if you can find the photo you are after.

(adding "tenby" doesn't come up with any hits for me.)

For example - "Flight Lieutenant Tom Fletcher" , air sea rescue pilot, obituary on 1 April 2010. There are 3 photographs including one of him and "his crew".

(The same obituary appears here - unfortunately there is only one photo, not the one with his crew.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/7542216/Flight-Lieutenant-Tom-Fletcher.html )

Modified:
Here's the 3 photos.
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/incoming/gallery/raf-hero-who-saved-downed-786867


Of course this is meant just as an example - not suggesting this is "your" photo.

[GillianF]

Interesting story.  My husband, brother-in-law and I have all looked at the photo and thought the man on the right of the third photo could be their father but further research into Flight Lt. Tom Fletcher on a website of 'Aircrew Remembered' suggests Tom is the main standing on the right on the wheel of the plane and not father-in-law.

My brother-in-law thinks/remembers his father was standing on the wing of an airplane on the water.  I can't access the website you have used as I am in France and the library doesn't offer such a service.

Would it be too much to ask you to have another look?  Please!!  I will be ever so grateful .............

[maddys52]

Yes, Tom FLETCHER definitely looks like the man on the wheel.

No problem. Will have another look. I'll send you a pm if I find anything that looks possible.