COVID-19 makes it difficult to attend churches and war memorials on Remembrance Day this year. One of our team managed to pay their respects in their own way by using 360° virtual tours of two local churches which were created for them at no cost.
Firstly was St John the Evangelist Church in Merrow. The link to the virtual tour is www.fostj.org/360 and there you can view the war memorial and the names of the fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen from Merrow. For information on the men who died you can read about their service history at https://www.merrowresidents.org.uk/Warmemorialbook.htm
There are very few war graves in the cemetery as many are buried abroad in the various theatres of war where they died.
Burpham in Surrey has two churches. The website for both 360° virtual tours of the Burpham Church is at https://gemini-images.co.uk/360/burphamchurch
St Luke’s is the oldest church and has the graves of 6 men who died in military service in WW2. An intersting fact is that 5 of the 6 men had connections to aviation.
F/Sgt Derek Lord was a pilot in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. When he died he was flying a Boulton & Paul Defiant interceptor aircraft. He was on a training flight in L6981 over Yorkshire with a trainee air gunner Sgt Arthur Potts. They were attacking a drogue when their aircraft went into a spin and crashed into the ground near Hutton Cranswick. Both Lord and Potts were 20 years old when they died in 1942.
Sgt Clive Hammond was an Observer on a Bristol Beaufort at the Torpedo Training Unit with the RAF Coastal Command at RAF Turnberry in Ayrshire, Scotland. He was in L9803 on a training exercise with three men from the Royal Canadian Air Force when the aircraft crashed into high ground on Ben More, Mull. He was 20 years old when he died in 1942.
Sub Lieutenant Aubrey Collins was in the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve and served on the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. He was 20 when he died in 1942.
James Cross was in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm and was training as an Air Mechanic 2nd class at HMS Daedalus (RMAS Lee-on-Solent). He died aged 18 in 1943.
Lieutenant Frederick Ranger was in the Royal Artillery. He served in 6(M) “Z” Anti Aircraft Regiment and was 42 when he died in 1944.
Private Samuel Reid served in the Pioneer Corps. He was 43 when he died in 1945.
LEST WE FORGET. WE WILL REMEMBER THEM