Stanley Welsh. Photo: A. Hardy
Harelaw Cemetery
Memorial at Wickenby: Tony Hibberd
S. Welsh
Flight Engineer
Royal Air Force
14th July 1945 Age 19
In Loving Memory of Stanley
Son of John and Mary J. Welsh
He Shall Wear His Crown in Glory
Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
The 626 Squadron website records that Sgt Welsh was killed in Lancaster PD287 UM-P, which crashed on a training flight from R.A.F. Wickenby. The Lancaster ran into a thunder storm, and crashed at 01.55 at Wharram-le-Street, 12 miles NW of R.A.F. Driffield, with the loss of all its crew.
See also Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1945; W.R. Chorley; 1998; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 92 X
Jean Hardy has sent in the following:
Stanley Welsh was my uncle, youngest brother of my father Thomas Harold Welsh BEM. All the crew were not killed in the crash. The following morning farm workers heard a whistle and were alerted to the crash; the tail gunner had survived.
There is a small museum in the control tower. The site is now used for private flying.
Tony Hibberd has sent a photograph of a memorial to the crew at Wickenby Airfield, Lincolnshire, from which the aircraft left before it crashed. It reads:
626 Squadron Wickenby (rear Gunner)
Adoring father, devoted husband and brilliant engineer
Sole survivor of Lancaster PD287
Lost on the night of July 13th/14th 1945
Whose crew are also remembered here:
Pilot: F/Sgt. Sydney Philip Bell
F/Eng: Sgt. Stanley Welsh
Nav: F/Sgt. Lawrence William Garfield
Air/Bmr: Sgt. Percy John Allsebrook
W/Op: F/Sgt. Henry Jacob Plastoow
M/U/Gnr: Sgt. Royal Charles Thomas Goldthorpe
Stanley Welsh is remembered in Annfield Plain on A38.01 and A38.09 and in a RAF Roll of Honour
