Roger Kirkham (pictured below as no. 15) has been a volunteer at Delapré Abbey since 2016 – assisting with tours for our visitors, and carrying out research. Since 2018, Roger has been researching the Lancaster Bomber Crash that happened on the grounds of Delapré Abbey on Thursday 26th April 1945. A chance encounter with the niece of one of the crew members who died in the crash let to him uncovering more information about what happened. With his own family connections involved, he has shown outstanding dedication and passion to this project, and we can’t thank him enough for all his efforts.
Roger’s own words below offer a moving insight into the personal journey and profound sense of duty that have guided his research over the past seven years.
On the 26th of April we unveiled the memorial benches to The Crew of Lancaster bomber PD339 which crashed at Home Farm on the Delapré estate exactly 80 years to the day in 1945. This was the culmination of nearly 7 years of research into the crash by myself following the discovery of an article on the crash in the local newspaper archives, whilst researching Delapré Abbey’s involvement in the two world wars. I soon discovered that this was a little known event, even by those at Delapré and in the local community. The aircraft had been on a mission known as Operation Exodus to repatriate allied prisoners of war from Germany.
There were seven members of the crew on board when the crash happened, five of The Crew died and two were injured. Four of those that died were all the way from New Zealand. As well as delving into the archives of the air crash investigation board and the records of 50 squadron. RAF, I have been lucky enough to meet one of the surviving crew, the living relatives of one of those that died in the crash and the families of the two farm workers that were awarded the British Empire Medal for their bravery in their attempts to rescue the crew.
This has been an emotional experience, getting to know the young crew who were bravely risking their lives for our freedom, and also knowing that my father had been flown home to England by these, or similar, young men following the liberation of the prisoner of war camp in which he had been held captive during 1944/45.
My thanks go out to Delapré Abbey Preservation Trust for facilitating the memorials, to the families of those involved in the crash for their information on their loved ones, to fellow volunteers, especially Bill Lockerbie for his great assistance in delivering talks on the subject which has brought in substantial donations to the fund to raise the memorials, to all those who contributed to the GoFundMe appeal and especially to Eleanor Sier who has worked incredibly hard to to bring the project to fruition.
