207787 Sgt. Leslie Charles Butcher Royal Air Force 103 Squadron from:Sevenoaks, Kent (d.25th Feb 1941) My Uncle, Les Butcher was killed in the War at the tender age of twenty years old. I've found photos of his air crew, I know he was a navigator on bombers and was presumably killed on a Wellington Bomber I think over the Dutch border coming down in the marshes. His body was never found. I have photos of the airfield at Hamble with the plane's serial number G-A DSU. I don't know if the plane is a Fairly or a Wellington. I also have a photo of him and the other members of the aircrew with descriptions of what happened to some of them, including being drowned, shot down, prisoners of war and missing. He must have realised that he would be unlikely to survive the war which of course he didn't.
I have pictures of my Mother and Les in November 1940 at Camden Road and can only assume he died in either late November or December that year. (Editor's note: Les is listed as beeing killed on the 25th of February 1941) My Mother was engaged to his brother at the time and got maried a few years later. My brother is named Les after him and his pictures were hung all over our house as we grew up. There was a letter to my Grandmother from the Red Cross as a body of one of the aircrew was found without identification tags and the relatives were naturally all trying to claim him as their loved one.
I'm intending to write a purely fictional tale about my Uncle Les as his body was never discovered and as a child I used to tease my Mum about "What would happen if he wasn't dead and he came back?" Both my parents are now dead and my brother Les lives in Australia so I feel I can write the story without hurting anyone's feelings.
I have three sons and when each one became twenty years old I thought about how young to die for your country. I was always told what a really fun man Les was it seems such a shame he never had the chance to have much of a life.
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