MY WAR DEAD
VAUGHAN, Bernard William - died 15th October 1942.
Bernard William Vaughan was born in Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey, in the latter part of 1907, being the fourth child and second son of Herbert Guest Vaughan, a bank clerk, and his wife who had been born Mary Helen Jones.
In 1911, Bernard was recorded with his parents and his older brother as a visitor in Cliftonville, near Margate; his two older sisters seem to have been left in Kingston. Knowledge of Bernard's life after this time is sketchy although it cannot have been easy; his father died in 1912 and his mother followed in 1916, leaving Bernard and his three siblings orphans at ages between 14 and 9. At some point, Bernard moved to Birmingham, where he worked as an office boy and he subsequently travelled to Australia in 1925.
While in Australia, Bernard lived in New South Wales where he worked as a farm hand in the township of Trundle, being recorded in the Australian electoral roll of 1930, but returned to England in the same year, arriving in London on 25th June and bound for an address on the outskirts of Birmingham. He had probably met his future wife, Elizabeth Grant, while in Australia; she had been born there in about 1911 and arrived in England in July 1932, headed for Bernard's home in Birmingham. Bernard and Elizabeth were married in Dudley in late 1932.
Bernard and Elizabeth had 2 children, Marjorie born in 1934 and Ian in the following year. The family was then living in the Birmingham area, where they probably remained until 1940. Bernard joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, though whether before or after the start of the second world war is unknown. Shockingly, on 11th December 1940 when they were living in Master's Lane in the parish of Hill and Cakemore, Elizabeth and the 2 children were killed as a result of enemy bombing; Elizabeth was 29 and the children 6 and 5. In May of the following year, Bernard also suffered the loss of his younger brother, Reginald, who died while serving with the RAF. What effect these tragedies had on Bernard can only be imagined.
He continued to serve with the RAFVR and rose in the ranks to become a sergeant air gunner in 103 Squadron. This was a bomber squadron which was initially equipped with a small light bomber, the Fairey "Battle" monoplane but was re-equipped with the larger Vickers "Wellington" bomber in October 1940. The squadron continued to carry out operations over mainland Europe from its base at RAF Newton, near Nottingham, and subsequently from a new base at RAF Elsham Wolds in Lincolnshire, to where it transferred in July 1941. In July 1942 the "Wellington" bombers were replaced by the Handley Page "Halifax" and in late October of that year by Avro "Lancaster" bombers. Altogether, 103 Squadron is reported to have flown over 6,000 sorties during the war, suffering very heavy casualties throughout.
While serving with 103 squadron over Germany on 15th October 1942, Bernard was lost. He was flying aboard a mark II Halifax, serial no. W7850, on a mission to Koln (Cologne) when his aircraft crashed near Monchengladbach at 19:19 hours and he was killed, aged 35, together with 6 of his colleagues; a seventh crew member survived and was held as a prisoner of war. His body was recovered and he is now buried in the Rheinberg War Cemetery. The London Gazette of 6th November 1942 records that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (D.F.M.) though for what particular reasons is unknown. It should be noted that the C.W.G.C. record of Bernard's death has erroneous details for both his age and the names of his parents, neither error being explained as yet.
Bernard left an estate worth almost £1,000, Administration of which was granted to Margaret Alice Large in March 1944. Bernard's last address was then recorded as having been in Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
Bernard William Vaughan was my 4th cousin twice removed and the younger brother of Reginald Herbert Vaughan who had been killed in the previous year.