THE FUNERALS AT CAMBRIDGE
The funeral of Squadron Leader Mackenzie, Tony Lawrence, Sandy Grant and five other Dominion aircrew took place at Cambridge City Cemetery on 22nd December 1943.
At the time of researching the book, "Fire By Night", I only had modern-day photographs of the cemetery and the gravestones of Sandy and Tony.
However, very recently some most extraordinary historical photographs have come to light which show the actual funerals themselves. Not only this but of the three names readable on the coffin plates, two are of our crew, Tony and Sandy, their names being inscribed as L.K.A. (Leslie Kenneth Alexander) Grant and R.A. (Robert Anthony) Lawrence.
These photographs are so exceptional, being the only contemporary photographs I know which directly link to Black Thursday, 16th/17th December 1943, that I have put large copies on this website.
The extraordinary and very moving photographs of the funerals were collected in a book of 97 Squadron memorabilia by F/Lt (later to become S/Ldr) Hind who was Station Adjutant for 97 squadron from 1941 to 1945. He was not aircrew himself but acted as a sort of historian to the Squadron.
My most grateful thanks go to the 97 Squadron Association website, where a small-scale image made me realise that here was something of immense significance to the story of the K-King crew. I also have them to thank for the copies of these photos.
At the time of researching the book, "Fire By Night", I only had modern-day photographs of the cemetery and the gravestones of Sandy and Tony.
However, very recently some most extraordinary historical photographs have come to light which show the actual funerals themselves. Not only this but of the three names readable on the coffin plates, two are of our crew, Tony and Sandy, their names being inscribed as L.K.A. (Leslie Kenneth Alexander) Grant and R.A. (Robert Anthony) Lawrence.
These photographs are so exceptional, being the only contemporary photographs I know which directly link to Black Thursday, 16th/17th December 1943, that I have put large copies on this website.
The extraordinary and very moving photographs of the funerals were collected in a book of 97 Squadron memorabilia by F/Lt (later to become S/Ldr) Hind who was Station Adjutant for 97 squadron from 1941 to 1945. He was not aircrew himself but acted as a sort of historian to the Squadron.
My most grateful thanks go to the 97 Squadron Association website, where a small-scale image made me realise that here was something of immense significance to the story of the K-King crew. I also have them to thank for the copies of these photos.
LINKED PAGES
December 16/17 1943 & The Battle of Berlin
