Pilot Officer Edward Noel WARD (81340)
61 Squadron Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 22nd December 1909
Date of death: 20th December 1940

Killed on active service aged 30
Buried at St Mary's Churchyard, Manby in Lincolnshire Grave 3
Edward Noel Ward was born at Wallasey in Cheshire on the 22nd of December 1909 the son of Frank Ward, a ship owner, and Theodora Caroline Ward of Lancing College Farm, later of Glebe House, Lancing. He was christened at Wallasey on the 22nd of January 1910.

He was educated at Lancing College where he was in Olds House from September 1923 to July 1927. In January 1928 he went to work for Messrs. John Thorneycroft & Company of Basingstoke as an apprentice aeronautical mechanic where he trained in the drawing office, in engine assembly and in chassis testing.

He obtained his Aero Club Certificate (No. 13417) on the 3rd of November 1935 at Brooklands Flying Club flying a DH Moth Gypsy 1 85hp aircraft.

He was elected as a member of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers on the 10th of May 1929 but his membership lapsed on the 31st of December 1939. In 1935 he was living at “Parkside”, Upper Teddington Road, Kingston-on-Thames in Surrey but later lived at Annington Farm Cottage at Steyning, where he farmed and ran a petrol station.

He was married in 1934 to Jessica "Jessy" Margarita (nee Taylor). She was remarried in 1947 to Stanley Gilbert Wernham.

He served as a Sergeant (Pilot) in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 9th of June 1940.

On the 20th of December 1940 Edward Ward and his crew took off from RAF Hemswell in Hampden Mark 1 X2981 QR-B for a flight to test an Imp Type "A" mine. The aircraft exploded in mid air at 3pm and crashed at Theddlethorpe ranges killing the entire crew. The accident was thought to have been caused by the premature explosion of the device.

The crew was: -

Pilot Officer Edward Noel Ward (Pilot)
Flight Lieutenant Frederick Edgar Howard Cooper (Pilot Instructor)
Sergeant Sidney Evans (Wireless Operator)

The bodies of the crew were recovered by men from D Company, 7th Battalion Lincolnshire Regiment.

His wife received the following telegram dated the 21st of December 1940: - "Deeply regret to inform you that your husband Pilot Officer Edward Noel Ward is reported to have lost his life as the result of an aircraft accident on the 20th December 1940. Letter follows. The Air Council express their profound sympathy."

His funeral was held on the 24th of December 1940 and a memorial service was held in his memory at North Lancing Church at 3pm on the 28th of December 1940.

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