207178 Sgt. John Alfred Leslie McLean RAFVR 9 Squadron (d.29 September 1941) John was my late mother's sweetheart. He was killed, aged 21, in a Wellington Mk 1C - Operation Genoa, 29 September 1941, and is buried in Milan War Cemetery, along with the other crew. All through my childhood I was taken by my mother to visit John's mother, never quite understanding who this lady was. Only in later life did my mother tell me. She never forgot John, despite 62 years of marriage to my father, and always kept his photograph and letters. I now remember him for her on the aniversary of his death, and on Remembrance Day I place a poppy on a war memorial for him. My brother was given John's name as a second name, and I was given Lesley (the female version of Leslie)as a second name, in his memory. I have never visited John's grave (though I was once close by without knowing) but this is from a poem I wrote about John, how he affected my life:
...I wish I'd known, then, that you were buried
there. I would have visited your airman's grave,
from where that precious marble chip my mother
always kept, had come. You were only twenty-one
and if not for the war, might have become my father,
but your plane was torn from the sky, denying you
that chance. Each November Mother wore a poppy,
took me on the fog-swaddled Woolwich ferry to see
your mother, offering her a grandchild for a while.
This ritual helped to keep your memory alive,
though every trip, it seemed, dissolved in mist and tears.
Father gave me part of your name, but he never came
on all those journeys we made across the river.
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