Sandy Grant, Bomb Aimer
Sandy Grant, the bomb aimer, was the third vital member of the PNB group which was the core of all the Lancaster crews. Sandy held the same senior rank as Ted, being a temporary Flying Officer at the end of 1943; he and Ted were the only officers on the crew.
Sandy's full name was Leslie Kenneth Alexander Grant, but the crew always called him Sandy, an abbreviation of his third name which both reflected his hair colour and usefully distinguished him from the other Leslie on the crew.
He was a small man, slight and short, with a reddish Celtic colouring and a little moustache. Born in 1920 and thus the same age as his skipper, his father was Canadian, his mother Scottish. His early childhood had been spent in Princeton, British Columbia, but at some stage the family had moved to Vancouver -the family home was at 955 Thurlow Street.
At the age of 18 Sandy joined the Royal Canadian Signal Corps, but only remained with them for six months. The occupation he took up thereafter was that of painter and interior decorator at the Ritz Apartment Hotel.
He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1940, and thereafter prospered. His initial training was in navigation, always a useful skill for a bomb aimer, a large part of whose work was in assisting the navigator to plot an accurate course. He finally won his Observer Badge on 19th March 1943, then embarked for England and joined Ted's crew
Ted's girlfriend Jill would always remember Ted and Sandy's frequent appearances together, for they were something of an odd couple due to the great disparity in their sizes, Ted being very tall and dark, and Sandy very small and ginger. It was obvious, however, that the two were extremely good friends, who were always together except on the times when Ted and Jill wanted to be alone.
Sandy seemed to follow Ted like a shadow; being rather shy, he looked up to Ted and used to rely on him like a big brother. As Jill said 'Sandy was so small that I think Ted felt responsible for him. Ted was very friendly to him. But then Ted was friendly to everyone.'
Sandy's full name was Leslie Kenneth Alexander Grant, but the crew always called him Sandy, an abbreviation of his third name which both reflected his hair colour and usefully distinguished him from the other Leslie on the crew.
He was a small man, slight and short, with a reddish Celtic colouring and a little moustache. Born in 1920 and thus the same age as his skipper, his father was Canadian, his mother Scottish. His early childhood had been spent in Princeton, British Columbia, but at some stage the family had moved to Vancouver -the family home was at 955 Thurlow Street.
At the age of 18 Sandy joined the Royal Canadian Signal Corps, but only remained with them for six months. The occupation he took up thereafter was that of painter and interior decorator at the Ritz Apartment Hotel.
He joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in June 1940, and thereafter prospered. His initial training was in navigation, always a useful skill for a bomb aimer, a large part of whose work was in assisting the navigator to plot an accurate course. He finally won his Observer Badge on 19th March 1943, then embarked for England and joined Ted's crew
Ted's girlfriend Jill would always remember Ted and Sandy's frequent appearances together, for they were something of an odd couple due to the great disparity in their sizes, Ted being very tall and dark, and Sandy very small and ginger. It was obvious, however, that the two were extremely good friends, who were always together except on the times when Ted and Jill wanted to be alone.
Sandy seemed to follow Ted like a shadow; being rather shy, he looked up to Ted and used to rely on him like a big brother. As Jill said 'Sandy was so small that I think Ted felt responsible for him. Ted was very friendly to him. But then Ted was friendly to everyone.'
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Edward Thackway, Jack Powell, George Grundy, Peter Hughes Mack, Robert Anthony Lawrence, Leslie Laver, Leslie Kenneth Alexander Grant, 97 Squadron, 16/17 December 1943
Edward Thackway, Jack Powell, George Grundy, Peter Hughes Mack, Robert Anthony Lawrence, Leslie Laver, Leslie Kenneth Alexander Grant, 97 Squadron, 16/17 December 1943
Aircrew on Berlin op - December 16/17 1943