There are of course many New Zealanders buried overseas - from those dying of natural causes and accidents, but most poignantly, those who fought for us and ended up in foreign soil.
For Wellington, there are four buried in an English cemetery that have a special relationship with us. They are Pilot officer Charles Agnew, Pilot officer Alfred Churchill Lockyer, Flying officer Terence McKinley and Flight sergeant John Matthew Stack. Charles was born on January 1, 1919, the son of Robert and Margaret Agnew. They had emigrated from Fife, Scotland to New Zealand. During the Second World War he went to Canada and trained with the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in winnipeg, Manitoba. He joined the 630 Squadron in Lincolnshire which was equipped with Lancaster Mark III bombers whic carried out strategic bombings. On November 22, 1944 he was a crew member on a mission to detect German U boat pens but the engine on the plane failed and crashed out of control. He was the only one of his 10 brothers who was killed in action. He was also the husband of Cecelia Joyce Agnew. Alfred was born on October 2, 1921 to John Adams Lockyer and his wife Gertrude in Belfast in Ireland. Alfred had also trained on Lancaster bombers. On March 17, 1945 he and six others were selected for a training exercise over the North Sea but it was quickly cancelled and they were ordered to proceed to a bombing range at Alkborough to drop practise bombs. Warned of an air raid they were told to put their light outs as a Luftwaffe twin-engine place appeared behind them and attacked. Lockyer’s plane was engulfed in flames and he ordered the crew to bail. Only the flight engineer got out before the aircraft went into a dive and crashed into the sea. Terence was born on April 23, 1922 to Denis Alphonsus and Mildred Agnes McKinley. He trained with the Royal Canadian Air Force Training School in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada and graduated on 7th November 1941. He joined the night bomber squadron and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross as an outstanding captain. He piloted Halifax Bombers and on November 14, 1943, he and three others were testing one when it suffered a double engine failure and crashed. John was born in June 1917, in Lower Hutt to John Charles Edward Stack and Ada Ann who had come from England. He served in the Royal Air Force as part of bomber command and was based in Cambridgeshire. On October 18, 1944 he and six others took off in a Stirling MKIII on a night training exercise. The weather quickly turned bad and their plane crashed in Mickle Fell in County Durham. All four Wellingtonians are buried in the Stonefell Cemetery, (along with 19 other New Zealanders) in Harrogate (along with - Wellington’s sister city. Pic by Ray Harrington.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorFran and Deb's updates Archives
December 2024
Categories |