Gloucestershire | Stoke Orchard | War Memorial
| St James the Great, Stoke Orchard War Memorial Ordnance Survey reference: SO 918282 |
From August 1942, Stoke Orchard was the home for Glider Training School number 3. Of the handful of fatal accidents, two crew men are buried in the churchyard. (The notes below about these two come from John Rennison’s Wings over Gloucestershire (full bibliographic information on the Links & Sources page)
There appears to be no war memorial in the church or churchyard. There may be a war memorial elsewhere, awaiting a future
revisit. Until then, here are the four WWII graves in the churchyard:
|
LIEUTENANT COLONEL C.R.FRYER M.C.& BAR THE KING’S ROYAL RIFLE CORPS AIRBORNE 14TH JULY 1944 AGE 54 |
FLIGHT LIEUTENANT H. HOLLINDRAKE ROYAL AIR FORCE 29TH MAY 1942 LIFE IS IMMORTAL LOVE IS ETERNAL |
|
1322016 SERGEANT C.E. PETRE PILOT ROYAL AIR FORCE 31ST AUGUST 1943 AGE 22 HE DIED FOR FREEDOM MAY IT EVER REIGN | Miles Master DM404 from no. 3 Glider Training School was doing aerobatics near the Farmers Arms pub (Apperley), crashed and caught fire. |
|
1054620 CORPORAL W.C.PALMER GLIDER PILOT REGIMENT ARMY AIR CORPS 4TH SEPTEMBER 1942 AGE 21 SAFE IN THE ARMS OF THE ETERNAL FATHERS | W.C. Palmer was piloting a General Aircraft Hotspur Glider – it crashed at Boddington after being released from tow. |
Last modified 23 June 2001