There has been an appeal made to locate the relatives of the Lancaster bomber crew who died when their aircraft crashed in Lincolnshire during the Second World War. In the farmland of Bicker, there stands a memorial which designates the spot where Lancaster ND820 crashed during a training flight on April 10, 1944.
The BBC reported there was a service to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the wreckage on April 5th. The mayor of Boston wanted to locate relatives of the deceased so they could attend the service. Councilor Paul Kenny was hopeful and said it would be nice if more family members were able to attend. At the time, there was only one family would be in attendance.
Flying Officer, TF Wilson, was a crew member and has been buried in Stonefall Cemetery in Harrogate. Unfortunately, the bodies of the other crewmen– Warrant Officer R.T. Lord, Sergeants R.H.F. Malthouse and J.W. Nixon, and Flight Sergeants D.J. Farrant, J.B. Bannan and A.I.G. Hunter—were never found.
Kenny remarked how sad that they are holding a memorial for the crewmen, only to recognize that six of the men were still out there, in the field, unaccounted for. Lincolnshire Aircraft Recovery Group (LARG) is a coalition of aviation archaeologists. They had the memorial erected to mark the 60th anniversary. Flight Sergeant Joseph Bannan’s grandson learned details about the memorial while on the Internet. For the first time ever, the widow, now in her 90s, was able to visit the site of where it is believed that is her husband’s grave site.
Until now, she never knew where in England her husband perished. The Protection of Military Remains Act 1986 prohibits aircraft recovery groups from contacting the relatives of those who were killed. LARG member, Dave Stubley, believes it would be nice if relatives would come forward as a result of the Mayor’s appeal.