John Neville Unsworth

Rank:SergeantNumber:1073810
Ship/Rgn/Sqn No:214 Sqn RAFVR
Name of Rgt or Ship:Bomber Command
Died:03/03/1943Age:19
How Died:Killed in Action
Country of burial:GermanyGrave Photo:No
Cemetery or Memorial:Sage Cemetery
Town Memorial:Sale
Extra Information:
Born during the September quarter 1923 in the Salford R.D. - ref: 8d/191,
the son of Walter & Hannah Unsworth (nee Stokes).

1939 National Registration - 111 Walton Road, Sale.   Walter Unsworth -
Married - born: 16th August 1897 - occ: Foreman Machine Tool Engine
Inspector.  Hannah Unsworth - Married - born: 31st May 1898 - occ: Unpaid
Domestic Duties.   There are two redacted records - these will be John
Neville Unsworth and his sister Doreen Unsworth, redacted under the 100
year rule.   There was an elder sister - Gladys Unsworth, but she died in
1922, aged: 1 year.

Attended Bradbury Central School.  Lived in Timperley until c1938.   
Employed as a Junior Draughtsman at a Broadheath works before joining the
RAF in September 1939.

Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, he had almost completed his tour of missions
when he was killed.  [A tour = 30 missions].

Flying with 214 Sqn, they took off at 18.19hrs from R.A.F. Chedburgh in a
Stirling Mk.I, No. EF329 BU-C on a bombing operation over Hamburg.  They
were hit by flack and crashed at 22.10hrs at Leeste, 9 km S of Bremen.    
Total losses 6 crew (plus 1 taken prisoner) - 5 are buried in the Sage Cem,
1 commemorated at Runnymede.  The one taken prisoner was a New Zealander
who survived the war and returned to New Zealand afterwards.

Death reported in the 26/03/1943 edition of the Sale & Stretford Guardian.

His sister - Doreen Davidson, informs that Neville's mother was an
accomplished seamstress and worked at Millers of Chester on School Road,
Sale.   The owner - Monte Miller lived at Greenway Close, off The Avenue,
Sale.  Miller's busy workshop above the shop helped Neville's mother get
through her grief of losing him.  Apparently, it was assumed that as he was
a draughtsman in the drawing office at the Churchill Machine Tool Company,
he would be exempted from military service.   However, he had other ideas
and giving a false date of birth, he enlisted into the R.A.F. at Padgate,
Lancashire.

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