100423 Flying Officer Alec Edward "Pops" Harris RAF Observer 256 Squadron from:Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire (d.19th Jan 1945) I am Alec Harris' daughter and was ten years old when he and his pilot crashed when taking off from Nice airport in their mosquito in January 1945. My father was the navigator. They were first posted as missing and son after my father's body washed up on a beach just south of Marseilles. He is buried in the British cemetry there.
I would be most interested to hear from anyone who may remember my father.He was forty years old when he died and quite the oldest in the squadron where his nickname was "pops". Most members of the squadron would have been much younger so may still be alive.
His death affected my mother deeply and she died of cancer in 1960. I think she felt it was a cruel fate in that he died so close to the end of the war and especially after he had been in much more dangerous missions previously. As far as I remember my father was in Malta, North Africa, Sardinia and Fogia, Italy. I have a photo of him also in front of the Sphinx in Egypt but am not sure where this fits in chronologically.
If there is any record of his service and a record of where he was and when I would be most grateful to know how to obtain this information.
I now live in Oregon in the USA.
Sincerely Sally B Smith (nee Harris)
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