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Author Topic: Sergeant Pilot Harold Day grave  (Read 396 times)

Offline Davedrave

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Sergeant Pilot Harold Day grave
« on: Tuesday 18 February 25 18:57 GMT (UK) »
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?

Offline *Sandra*

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Re: Sergeant Pilot Harold Day grave
« Reply #1 on: Tuesday 18 February 25 19:28 GMT (UK) »
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/
BULLYING is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing, comments, or threats, in order to abuse, aggressively dominate, or intimidate one or more others. The behavior is often repeated and habitual.

Census information is Crown Copyright  http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk

British Census copyright The National Archives; Canadian Census copyright Library and Archives Canada

Online ShaunJ

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Re: Sergeant Pilot Harold Day grave
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 18 February 25 19:34 GMT (UK) »
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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Offline Davedrave

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Re: Sergeant Pilot Harold Day grave
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 18 February 25 21:00 GMT (UK) »
Many thanks both for your replies and solving this for me.

Dave  :)
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