Pilot Officer - Obs 111523 Arthur Cyril White

Census details:
1939 Register. Unfortunately Arthur is redacted. Father Arthur White born 17/01/1880 a Clerk In Holy Orders, mother Elizabeth White born 14/09/1878 a Housewife and sister Carole (Arlen) White born 24/07/1914 a Student are living at The Vicarage, Beacon Road, Billinge.

Notes:
[url=http://www.sthelensrollsofhonour.co.uk/lmem.php?lmem=39]Remembered On The St. Aidan's CofE Church Memorial[/url]

Pilot Officer (observer) 11523 26 Operational Training Unit Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) Cyril was born on the 27th of August 1918 at St. James' Vicarage the son of Rev. Arthur and Elizabeth White, and was baptised on the 15th of September 1918 at St. James' C.E. Church, Poolstock, Wigan. His father was Vicar of St. Aidan's from 1935 to 1949 and he was also Arch Deacon of Warrington 1948-1958. Cyril whodrove a red MG sports car was studying theology at Oxford but left to join the R.A.F. He was stationed at number 27 O.T.U. from where two crews were sent to No. 26 O.T.U. Wing, Buckinghamshire to man two spare Wellington bombers for the thousand-bomber raid on Cologne. Cyril was the youngest member and the only commissioned man in the crew. He was the front gunner and bomb aimer. His plane (O for orange) was the first to take off from Gravely, an unfinished airfield, their target being Cologne railway station. After Cyril had released the bombs he returned to the front gun turret and shortly afterwards the plane was attacked from both the front and back by fighter planes. All the crew except the pilot Fred Hillyer was killed, and the pilot had to bale out over the Netherlands, where he was captured and taken prisoner. It was Sunday the 31st of May 1942. Cyril was 23 years old and is buried in the Uden War Cemetery, Netherlands, grave 4.A.6. His name is recorded on St. Aidan's C.E. Church Memorial, and on the family grave headstone in St. Aidan's Churchyard, grave 13/15. Sources:- Miss Betty Wright; The Commonwealth War Graves Commission; St. Aidan's Parish Magazine, July 1944; The Thousand Plan-The Story of the First Thousand Bomber Raid on Cologne, by Ralph Barker, Airlife Publishing 1992, P. 99;101;187-9. [url=http://sthelens-connect.net/sitefiles/billinge-history.pdf]Information Courtesy of The Billinge History Society [pic]imgs/WW2_headstones/111523ArthurCyrilWhite.jpg[/pic][caption]The headstone of Pilot Officer - Obs Arthur Cyril White at Uden War Cemetery Photograph Courtesy of [/url][url=http://www.warcemeteries.nl/index.html]Marcel Boven[/url][/caption]