WILLIAM ALEXANDER BENJAMIN LAUGHLIN

William is not remembered on the war memorial at Christchurch Park.

Born: 1922, Ipswich.

Died: 1st August 1942; age: 20; aircraft crash at Krefeld.

Rank: Sergeant/Air Gunner; Service Number: 932631.

Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 405 ‘Vancouver’ Royal Canadian Air Force Squadron.

Grave Reference:

28.D.14.

Reichswald Forest War Cemetery,

Kleve,

Germany.

Relatives Notified & Address: Son of Alfred Alexander Laughlin & Blanche Laughlin, of Fison’s Cottages, Works Lane, Bramford, Suffolk; husband of Grace Laughlin, of Bramford, Suffolk.

Father: Alfred Alexander Laughlin, born September 1893, Ipswich.

Mother: Blanche May Millie Laughlin (nee Potter), born May 1890, Little Blakenham, Suffolk.

In 1942, Bramford, Suffolk, William married Grace V.E. Benstead, born 1924, Bosmere, Suffolk.

1st August 1942

Aircraft: Handley Page Halifax; Serial Number: W1109; Code: LQ-S. The aircraft took-off at 00:36hrs, from Pocklington, East Riding of Yorkshire, as part of a night raid on Düsseldorf , Germany. The aircraft crashed without survivors at Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany.

Crew:

Edward Allison Anderson; Sergeant/Flight Sergeant; age 25; R.C.A.F.

John Fawell O’Brien; Sergeant/Navigator; age 20; R.A.F.V.R.

Francis Charles Bond; Sergeant/Air Gunner; age 22; Sergeant/Air Gunner; R.A.F.

James Hunter; Sergeant/Pilot; R.A.F.

Jack William Irish; Sergeant/Air Gunner; age 20; R.C.A.F.

Stanley Woodman; Sergeant/Wireless Operator/Air Gunner; age 22; R.A.F.V.R.

The crew were laid to rest at the Principal Cemetery, Krefeld. Later exhumed, and re-interred at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery.