Photo: Brian Chandler
In Netherton Lane Cemetery is a family headstone which reads:
In
Loving Memory
of
George Atchison
who died at
Bedlington Station,
Feby. 10th 1916
aged 83 years.
Also Alice, his wife
died Feby. 14th 1916,
aged 81 ears.
"United in life undivided in
death."
Also Thomas, their son
and beloved husband of
Catherine Atchison
who lost his life
in the Dr. Pit Bedlington,
March 23rd, 1926,
aged 58 years.
Also the above Cathering
died Feb.17th 1958, aged 74 years.
And of Sgt. Thomas Todd Atchison
R..F. Bomber Command,
dear son of Thomas and Catherine
killed through enemy action
11th May 1940, aged 23 years.
Interred British Military Cemetery
Reichswald Forest Cleves
Germany.
Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Sgt. Atchison was killed when Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley V N1366 of 77 Squadron was lost on a mission to Munchengladbach. The Whitley was hit by flak over the target, and crashed near Munchengladbach. Of the five crew, only one survived to become a P.o.W.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1939-1940; W.R. Chorley; 1992; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 85 7, page 50
Tony Hibberd has added the following:
Whitley N1366 KN-? had departed Driffield at 2025 for Ops Monchengladbach.
This was the first raid against German soil in WWII This aircraft was also the first RAF Bomber Command aircraft to crash inside Germany whilst engaged on Ops against a European mainland target during WWII.
Also killed in the same incident was LAC T. Poad
Thomas Todd Atchison is remembered at Bedlington on B15.02 , B15.08 and B15.13
