Wendell N Watkins Jnr (above) was the son of Wendall (Snr) and Herberta Watkins of Gowanda, USA, he was born in 1923. He graduated from Gowanda High School in 1941 and applied to join the United States Air Force but they would not accept him because he only had a high school diploma so he then applied to join the RCAF and was accepted and completed much of his training with the RCAF before transferring to the USAAF in 1943 to join the European campain. Following his death he was initially buried in the UK at Cambridge cemetery (the left photo shows his headstone there, although the photograph is out of focus the name in still readable). He returned home and was re-interred in the USA in 1948. The service was conducted on 21st July 1948 with burial at Collins Center Cemetery, New York afterwards, with six school-friends walking as an escort to the graveside.

Much of this information was researched by Mr Phil Palen, of Gowanda, New York and was passed to Mr Leslie Green, and in turn to me. The modern photograph of his gravestone in the USA is through Mr Palen and I thank for this and his research. The photograph of his original grave marker/cross was kindly sent to Mr Green by Wendell Watkins sister Mrs Judy Watkins Pickering to whom I am most greatful.

Kenneth Holden. Kennie lost his father in the First World War when he was only two years old and afew years after this he lost his mother at the age of four. He and his eight year old brother Ronnie were then brought up by their mothers sister; their aunt and uncle, Mr Harold Martin and Mrs Mary Martin, of Warwick Road, Atherton. The Martin family already had two sons, one of which joined the RAF but returned home from training in Canada because of ill health and became a teacher. (I would like to thank Ms Edith Alice Martin, via Mr Leslie Green, for this additional information on Kenneth Martin. I understand that the family still live locally to Atherton and this research is not to publish details of living individuals.). Kennie was educated at St Anne's School and Chowbent Unitarian School in the Atherton area. He was also employed in the cardroom of Laburnum School. Before joining the RAF he was a member of the Atherton ATC and a NFS messenger and a member of the local church at St. Annes.

Charles Lovett; as yet little is known about him.

Homer Muisiner was actually a Canadian and enlisted in the RCAF, although his family lived in the USA he was never an American. He was buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. The Wings show him to have been an Observer at the time the photo was taken. (Photo and information by Ms Kathy Muisiner and Mr Frank Muisiner, via Mr Leslie Green).

Lloyd Cull. The four Cull brothers (left to right) Arnold, George, Lloyd and Cecil Cull and Lloyd Cull's gravestone.

The family also lost another son, George Cull in December 1943 (buried in the family plot in Canada). Lloyd was the third Cull brother to join the RCAF, he enlisted in late 1942 and reported to Toronto on 4th January 1943. He arrived in Yorkshire in October 1943 and made his first flight over enemy territory in a Halifax in January 1944, just weeks after his brother George's death. Lloyd was apparently good at swimming and especially hockey. He played midget, juvenile and junior hockey at Falconbridge and was a star in some of the midget NHL cup games. In a press report in November 2007 the Sudbury Star, Canada contained a report in which Lloyd's brother Arnold was interviewed and states that "Lloyd was the better one, He played with the Copper Cliff Redmen, he played junior hockey in 1942 and was a member of the 1940-1941 Rothschild winners, along with his brother George." He also played the tuba in the Falconbridge Band. Arnold Cull stated that Lloyd wasn't as good in school as George and didn't finish high school. Lloyd was working at Falconbridge Mines when he enlisted. There were four Cull brother's and all enlisted. The eldest Arnold and George enlisted on Christmas Eve 1941 to join the Canadian Navy; George would eventually join the RCAF with Lloyd. The two younger ones being Lloyd and Cecil. Cecil and Arnold would serve in the Navy and survive the War. George was born at Sturgeon Falls where his father worked for Abitibi and in 1933 the family moved to Sudbury, Garson and finally to Falconbridge. It was on George's final training flight with 34 OTU that the aircraft struck an indicator on a watertower and the aircraft crashed soon after. The four airmen on the aircraft were killed in the crash of the twin engine aircraft which "crashed a quarter of a mile from the railroad station at McAdam, N.B. The aircraft had been flying in formation with two others over the town. Railway employees saw something fall from the plane before it collided with a 20-foot indicator above an 80-foot water tank."

John Huddleston was also from the USA but enlisted in the RCAF in Vancouver and trained for two years in Canada. He also served as an instructor with medium bombers at Rivers, Manitoba, Canada before leaving for active service in the UK.

Hugh Wallace; as yet little is known about him but in Bomber Command terms at 32 he was an old man.

These photographs are not intended to be morbid but give an impression af what every airmans funeral service must have been like at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. The top photograph shows the crew of EB203 been carried into the Cemetery Chapel and the lower one shows their burial. Probably a similar and all too frequent occurance here for the two years it was used as the main War Cemetery in North Yorkshire.

From time to time I receive a photograph which depicts more than just information purtaining to just one incident and loss and more than which the photograph was intended to show. The above photograph was kindly sent to Mr Leslie Green by Wendell Watkins's sister and shows the graves of the crew who were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, probably afew weeks after they were buried. Not only does it show these graves but many of the 1943 and early 1944 losses at the far side of the War Graves plot, a number of graves-in-waiting and an area which by the end of the War would be full of men who gave their lives. The photograph was actually taken by Mrs Mary Martin, Aunt to Kenneth Holden and sent to the Watkins family in the USA.

I visited the area of the crash in June 2007, Mr Ken Reast had located the site some months previously, under what was then a muck heap! The muck heap has now moved afew yards up the field.