MY WAR DEAD

VAUGHAN, Reginald Herbert - died 12th May 1941.

Reginald Herbert Vaughan was born in Putney on 17th September 1905, being toungest child and second son of Herbert Guest Vaughan, a bank clerk, and his wife who had been born Mary Helen Jones. Reginald was baptised at All Saints church, Wandsworth, on 24th December, when his parents address was recorded as 18 Mexfield Road.

In 1911, Reginald was recorded with his parents and his younger brother as a visitor in Cliftonville, near Margate; his two older sisters had been left in Kingston. Little is known of Reginald's life in the next 20 or so years, although it cannot have been easy; his father died in 1912 and his mother followed in 1916, leaving Reginald and his three siblings orphans at ages between 14 and 9. The first clear knowledge of him after 1911 is at the time of his marriage to Gladys White in Battersea in 1932; the couple probably had 3 children between 1933 and 1937 - Brian born in Marylebone followed by Janice and Barbara in Fulham. Reginald and Gladys lived in Fulham for several years, being recorded living at 33 Dawes Road in 1935, 26 Settrington Road in 1936 and 7 Hurlingham Mansions in 1938 and 1939.

After the outbreak of war in September 1939, Reginald joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and became an Acting Pilot Officer; he was regraded to Pilot Officer from 13th May 1940 according to a notice in the London Gazette in June of that year. He served with 144 Squadron, based at Hemswell in Lincolnshire, flying in the mark I Handley Page Hampden bomber with which his squadron was equipped. While on a mission to Bremen on the night of 11/12th May 1941 in aircraft serial no. AD900, Reginald was killed. Precise details are unknown although it is recorded that the aircraft was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 110, flown by Oberleutnant Helmut Woltersdorf, a renowned German fighter ace; it crashed just before 3:00am on 12th May at Hoogkarspel in the north west of the Netherlands, two of the crew being killed and the other two taken prisoner. The available records are not entirely consistent as it is stated that while Sergeant Stanley Albert Taylor, the wireless operator and air gunner, died on 11th May, Reginald, who was probably the rear gunner, is recorded as having died on 12th; it is presumed that this is a simple error in record keeping. He was aged 35 and is buried in the Bergen General Cemetery in the Netherlands, as is Sergeant Taylor. The other two crew members, Acting Squadron Leader C G C Rawlins and Pilot Officer (later Flight Lieutenant) R F J Featherstone of the Royal Canadian Air Force, were imprisoned in the Stalag Luft 3 camp, famous for the 'Great Escape' of 1944, though neither was involved.

It should be noted that the C.W.G.C. record of Reginald's death states his age incorrectly as being 32, although all other details are accurate. Reginald's widow, Gladys, survived until 1986 but did not remarry.

Reginald Herbert Vaughan was my 4th cousin twice removed and the elder brother of Bernard William Vaughan who was killed in the following year.

Find Reginald Herbert Vaughan in my Family Tree

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