Former cadet of the Air Training Corps - 296th (Stoke Newington) Squadron. Died in WW2.
Sergeant Alan John George Richards, aged 21, (Navigator) killed on operation over Kassel. Died 2 October 1943.
The above information was obtained from a laminated plaque that was attached to one of the 13 trees in Lavell Street, London, N16. Unfortunately, the date of death is shown incorrectly. He died on 22 October 1943. Additionally, he was not the Navigator on the aircraft in which he died, but was the Air Bomber.
The birth of Alan John George Richards was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1922 in Hackney. He was the younger son and second of the three children of George Oscar Richards (1890-1962) and Lilian Emma Richards née Bentley (1883-1960). His father was a wholesale meat supplier. Electoral registers from 1927 to 1937 show the family living at 104 Green Lanes, London, N16 and from 1937 onwards at 251 Green Lanes, N16. He attended Highbury County Grammar School for Boys, located at the junction of Highbury Grove and Highbury New Park, Highbury.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 1585241, gaining the rank of Sergeant and was attached to No.158 Squadron. On 22 October 1943 he was the Air Bomber in a Handley Page Halifax B11 aeroplane, Serial No.LW297, Code NP-E, that took off at 17.45 hours from RAF Lissett in Yorkshire as one of the 569 aircraft that flew on a mission to bomb Kassel, Hesse, Germany. Over 1,800 tons of bombs were dropped and around 5,600 people killed with over 26,000 homes being destroyed. Forty three aircraft were lost in the raid and all seven crew members of his aeroplane are buried in a collective grave in the Hanover War Cemetery, Harenberger Meile, 30926 Seelze-Harenberg, Germany. His grave is in Plot 3, Row J. Collective Grave No.1-17.
Probate records inform that his home address was 3 Oakeshott Avenue, Highgate West Hill, London, N6 and when probate was granted to his father on 22 May 1944 his effects totalled £305-1s-3d.
He is also commemorated in the Highbury County School Book of Remembrance and his name is recorded amongst the 851 men of No.158 Squadron who died and are engraved on the memorial erected in 2009 at the site of the airfield in Lissett, Yorkshire.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
