Address / Local links: 77 Olyffe Avenue, Welling
Family / Relatives: Son of Mr and Mrs Thomas Stephenson of Welling. Wife in Canada
Local Papers / Websites: BHO 9th June 1944
Other Information: Attended Bexleyheath Central Boys School, and worked at Welling Co-op.
Lived in Red Deer, Alberta early in war and was a Alberta heavyweight boxing champion
Eric Thomas Stephenson
Eric Stephenson’s short life must have been an eventful one, as we can tell from the newspaper clipping from the Bexleyheath Observer in June 1940…
After leaving Bexleyheath Boys Central School he worked for the RACS (Co-Op) stores in Welling, but soon left to join up for the RAF “and while under the Coastal Command was at Dunkirk during the evacuation”…
After that he was posted to Canada for training – he was there for two and a half years – was promoted to Sergeant, and married a local girl there…
“A well- known athlete with a fine physique” Eric was a noted sportsman and as a boxer he won the heavyweight championship of Alberta – not many Welling boys can have claimed that title! “He had many friends in Bexleyheath and Welling”…
Eric’s parents were Thomas F Stephenson and Elsie (nee Edwards) and they married in Woolwich in 1918. Further details are hard to come by, but we know that they were living in Olyffe Avenue by the mid 1930s. Thomas was a Cable Jointers Mate and the 1939 Register tells us that he had a ‘Civilian Role Air Raid Precautions’.
The Stephensons remained at Olyffe Avenue until the late 1940s and later moved to Cuxton Close. Elsie died in 1975, Thomas in 1982.
Canada
They probably never met their daughter-in-law, Eric’s Canadian wife? Research tells us that she was Dorothy H Plaister who he married in 1943 in Red Deer, Alberta.
“The Second World War brought many changes to the small sleepy city of Red Deer. With an increased demand for air-based warfare, a large airbase at nearby Penhold was soon in operation. Airmen from around the world trained there as part of the Commonwealth Air Training Program.
There was also growth on the ground. The population of Red Deer doubled by 1943 due to the influx of soldiers and workers at the new A-20 army camp”…
This must have been how and where Eric and Dorothy met. He was serving with an RAF Operational Training Unit (OTU):
“RAF OTU were the last stage of training for aircrew before being assigned to an operational unit in NW Europe and other theatres of war. By this stage, individuals had undertaken all their preparatory and qualifaction training, and shortly after arrival the the OTU, if they were operating a crewed aircraft, they would be ‘crewed up’ with the other men with whom they would go to war. This was done on an almost random basis by men just picking each other out in the crowd until they had got the necessary mix of ‘musterings’ (Pilot Navigator Wireless Operator / Air Gunners depending on the aircraft) to make up their crew with whom they would fly, until separated by death, injury, illness or re-posting.
In some cases, OTU detached aircraft to take part in actual operations, notably the first “Thousand Bomber Raid” on Cologne in May 1942.
Loss rates in training were high due to inexperience, crowded airspace, often poor weather, and even enemy aircraft operating over the United Kingdom.
Experienced pilots and aircrew were posted back to OTU to train and mentor new crews. Things were no less risky for them.”…
No. 76 Operational Training Unit RAF (76 OTU) was Eric’s group, an operational training unit. With them he left Canada and his young wife, and went to the Middle East theatre of war…
The unit was formed at RAF Aqir on 1 October 1943. Throughout its existence it was equipped with Vickers Wellington bombers – Mk. III and Mk. Xs. By October 1944 all the aircraft were Mk. Xs and trained crews for night bombing operations with RAF squadrons in the Middle East.
The unit was disbanded on 30 July 1945.
RAF Aqir was a Royal Air Force (RAF) station in Palestine, (Isreal), and was the main RAF station in Palestine in WW2 and was established in 1939. The station is now known as Tel Nof and is the headquarters of the Israeli Air Force.
From military records we learn:
Circumstances of Death: Lost in aircraft Wellington BX LN850 He was killed when Wellington LN850 crashed at Amurox 7 miles SE 9f Aquir airfield at approximately 02:00 Hours with suspected engine failure. Aircraft was found burnt out and Pullan, Hunter, Pettit, Stephenson were all found dead.
Eric is buried in the Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel.
History information
The cemetery dates from the First World War, when Ramleh (now Ramla) was occupied by the 1st Australian Light Horse Brigade on 1 November 1917. Field Ambulances, and later Casualty Clearing Stations, were posted at Ramleh and Lydda from December 1917 onwards. The cemetery was begun by the medical units, but some graves were brought in later from the battlefields and from Latron, Sarona and Wilhema Military and Indian Cemeteries.
During the Second World War, this cemetery was used by the Ramla Royal Air Force Station and by various Commonwealth hospitals posted in turn to the area for varying periods.
RAMLEH WAR CEMETERY contains 3,300 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 964 of them unidentified. Second World War burials number 1,168. There are also 892 war graves of other nationalities from both wars, and 525 non-war burials, many from the RAF and garrison stations that were at Ramleh in the inter war years and until the end of the British Mandate in Palestine in 1948.
The original war cemetery was designed by Sir John J. Burnet, but following the addition of the 1939-45 war graves, the site was extensively remodelled in the 1950s by Alan Stewart, ARIBA
You can find a lot more about the cemetery here; https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/72001/ramleh-war-cemetery/
Pictured are the newspaper cutting from the Bexleyheath Observer, Eric and his RAF comrades at Red Deer, A Vickers Wellington of No. 76 OUT on a training flight at Aqir, the Ramleh War Cemetery, and Eric’s headstone there.
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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.
Commemorated
- St. Michael’s East Wickham Church Memorial Tablet
- Ramleh War Cemetery, Israel
This story has been researched by volunteers. We have taken every effort to ensure its accuracy. If you are related to Eric Thomas Stephenson, or if you have any further information, please do get in touch.