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Goldthorpe

Sergeant (Air Gunner)

Roy Charles Thomas Goldthorpe

Service Number: 1893883

Regiment / Service
  • 626 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Date of Death
  • Died: 14/07/1945
  • Age: 20


Address / Local links: 18 Avondale Road Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of Charles Richard and Henrietta (Hattie) Goldthorpe, of Welling

Roy Charles Thomas Goldthorpe was born in April 1925 in West Ham, Essex, and had an elder sister, Henrietta Jnr. who was born in January 1921.

His parents Charles Richard and Henrietta (known as Hattie) (nee Dixon) married in February 1919, after the end of the First World War, in which his father, Charles, a milkman, had served in the Royal Navy. The family moved from West Ham to 18 Avondale Road, Welling sometime after the start of the Second World War.

Roy enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve when he turned 18 in 1943, where he served as an air gunner in 626 Squadron, a heavy bomber squadron based at RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire. On an operational training flight on 14th July 1945, his Avro Lancaster bomber crashed in a thunderstorm at Burdale, North Yorkshire, probably as a result of a lightning strike which either struck the aircraft or blinded the pilot. The rear gunner survived, though badly injured, but sadly the other 6 crew, including Roy, were killed.

Roy was buried in Bexleyheath Cemetery, where he was later joined by his father, who died in 1967 in Eltham. His mother died in 1984 in Greenwich.

The images below show Bexleyheath Cemetery, the Squadron memorial at Wickenby, and the field where Roy’s Lancaster crashed, the plane flying into the line of trees shown.

Bexleyheath Cemetery
Squadron memorial at Wickenby
The field where Roy’s Lancaster crashed

If anyone is able to add any extra information, provide more family details, or suggest any corrections, please let us know – also, if anyone has any more photos of this individual listed on our memorials, please get in touch. Thank you.

This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Roy Charles Thomas Goldthorpe, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.

Commemorated

This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Roy Charles Thomas Goldthorpe, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.