Attended St Paul’s Methodist Church, scoutmaster. Educated at Rastrick GS. Passed Civil Service exams & worked at Huddersfield Employment Exchange. Enlisted 1942. Trained in S Africa as observer. Lancaster III ND996. Took off 23:50 27 May 1944 from Kirmington. Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Stahe practically on the border between Germany and Holland and on the road from Geilenkirchen to Gangelt. The squadron was formed on 13 June 1918 at RAF Bircham Newton. It had three aircraft ready for the first operation but with the Armistice was not flown operationally so the squadron was disbanded. The squadron was re-formed on 1 November 1936 at RAF Boscombe Down Within a few months it had moved into the newly opened RAF Leconfield in Yorkshire. The squadron was not used for operations but became a training squadron to prepare crews for front-line service. With the start of the war the squadron moved to RAF Abingdon and it was disbanded on 6 April 1940 when it was absorbed into No. 10 Operational Training Unit. 142 Sqn and 150 Sqn were sent to North Africa but had enough surplus crews and equipment left behind at RAF Kirmington that they were re-formed on 27 January 1943 as 166 Squadron equipped with the Vickers Wellington. It flew regularly night sorties as part of No. 1 Group Bomber Command and converted to the Avro Lancaster in September 1943. At the start of 1945 with a slowdown in operation the squadron flew both day and night sorties but with the end of the war the squadron was disbanded, still at Kirmington, on 18 November 1945.