In South Shields (Harton) Cemetery is the Commonwealth War Grave, with a private headstone, of 920450 Sergeant Wilfrid Venus Atkinson serving with 102 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve who died 30/08/1941.
The son of Ralph Venus Atkinson, and Sarah Annie Atkinson, of South Shields. He was a Solicitor.
The family headstone reads:
In loving memory of
John Edwards
the beloved husband of
Jane E. Atkinson
who died October 26th 1928
also Captain James Atkinson
lost at sea June 17th 1917.
Also Frederick Atkinson
killed in action April 18th 1918.
Beloved sons of the above.
Also Jane Elizabeth
wife of the above,
who died April 16th 1941.
Also Ser. Wilfred Venus
Atkinson, R.A.F.V.R.
grandson of the above,
killed in action August 30th 1941.
Also John Edward
eldest son of the above
died 31st March 1971
aged 93 years.
Wilfred Venus Atkinson, born 15th May 1914, died 30th August 1941 was the only son to father Ralph Venus Atkinson, born 18th July 1886, baptised 10th August 1886, died 3rd April 1959. He married a Sarah Ann ‘Annie’. nee Kerr, Atkinson, born 22nd April 1890, on the 4th August 1913. They had two children.
The other child was :-
- Lorna Atkinson, born 1915, died 1997, she married a Frank Reavley, born 11th June 1910, died 1974.
In 1936, the father Ralph Venus Atkinson was speeding at 41 miles per hour in Prince Edward Road, witnessed by P.C. Stoddart, on the 23rd October. The South Shields Magistrates ordered Ralph to put 10s {shillings} in the Poor Box. Sarah was a Grocers Manageress with Ralph who was a Master Grocer residing at 6 Lismore Avenue, South Shields in 1939. Ralph was a Grocer and was initiated into the John Readhead Lodge of Freemasons on 2nd November 1914, in South Shields.
On the 2nd July 1943. Ralph Venus Atkinson, now of 7 Talbot Road, was fined £10 by South Shields magistrates for having sold two cans of peas [31st May], at 111/2d each, being in excess of the maximum price of 101/2d each. He pleaded guilty and submitted that a genuine mistake had been made.
On the 3rd January 1949, Ralph Venus witnessed a sudden death of a James Kelly, a labourer of Smiths Dock at the Market Place bus stop. James of 90 Talbot Road had a heart attack as he was about to step on to the bus. Ralph stated that he had never known Kelly to be ill all the time he had known him. Ingham Infirmary later confirmed that James death was caused by acute heart failure due to coronary thrombosis.
Wilfred Venus Atkinson undertook the Intermediate Examination in Law on the 8th November 1933, for employer J. Makepeace; in 1939, Wilfred was residing at 35, Barnfield Road, Exeter, and was a Solicitor; Wilfred joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, based at Topcliffe, Yorkshire, in 102 [Night] Squadron, Bomber Command, service number 920450, as an Observer.
At 22.15 on 29th August, he took off from RAF Topcliffe Airfield aboard an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V Z6591 bomber; on a night flight to bomb Frankfurt, Sergeant Wilfred V. Atkinson was killed in action, on 30th August 1941, at 5am, when the plane stalled while in the circuit and crashed and burst into flames near Docking, Norfolk, when returning from a raid on Frankfurt – two of the crew survived; Wilfred, of 14, Castle Street, Exeter, died on 30th August 1941 on war service.
See his uncles James Atkinson and Frederick Atkinson’s stories.
Sources: The James Hoy Archive; The British Newspaper Archive; The National Archives; Simon Clancey; Jennifer Stephenson; RAF History; Squadron ORB book;
Wilfrid Venus Atkinson is remembered at Westoe in W101.08, page 4, and in a RAF Book of Remembrance, page 1.
