Leonard Hartley
1939: elementary school teacher (Liverpool). RAF: pilot
- Family History
- Military history
- Extra information
- Photographs
Leonard was the younger son of Harry Hartley and his wife Emma (née Woodward).
The couple were married in 1902 (reg J/F/M Salford, Lancashire) and had two sons, Harry b. 1902, and Leonard b. 13 January 1915 who was baptised at St Catherine Mission Church, East Retford, on 9 February the same year.
Emma and her two sons, Harry, an assistant teacher at a council elementary school in Retford, and Leonard who was school age, were recorded on the 1921 Census at 56 Cobwell Road, Retford.
Harry snr. has not yet been traced on the 1921 Census but when the England & Wales Register was compiled in 1939 he was living at 56 Cobwell Street, occupation club steward. His wife Emma has not yet been traced on the 1939 Register but may have died in 1941.
Their eldest son, Harry, was married (Marion Lowth, 1930 Retford), and Leonard, now an elementary school master, was recorded on the 1939 Register at Fern Grove, Liverpool, where he was a boarder.
Leonard married Winifred Mary Perrons (b. 1913), in 1939 (reg. O/N/D Retford). Winifred came from Retford and at the time of her marriage was living with her parents, Herbert and Ada, on Trent Street.
Winifred married secondly Charles T Dent in 1946; she died in 2006.
Leonard's father died on 2 June 1959, his home address was still 56 Cobwell Road. His son Harry was his Executor.
Leonard was serving with 128 Squadron (Bomber Command) at the time of his death.
The Squadron was based at Downham Market, Norfolk, from 7 July 1942 to March 1944, and from January 1942 to April 1943 flew Short Stirling I aircraft.
Leonard was killed in action on 21 August 1942. One RAF record has a brief report of the loss of Leonard's aircraft: 'Shot down by flak at Hoffnungstal-Mariental during a mine laying sortie to the Kadet Channel. One of the crew survived and was captured.' (UK WW2 Index to Allied Airman ROH 1939-1945). The aircraft typically had seven crew: two pilots, navigator, bomb aimer, front gunner/wireless operator, two gunners and a flight engineer.
Leonard is buried in Kiel War Cemetery (2. J. 2). The history of the cemetery indicates that his grave was brought in after the war.
CWGC: Kiel War Cemetery. The city of Kiel is in north Germany about 100kms north of Hamburg. 'Most of those buried in Kiel War Cemetery were airmen lost in bombing raids over northern Europe, whose graves were brought in from cemeteries and churchyards throughout Schleswig-Holstein, the Frisian Islands and other parts of north-western Germany.' (www.cwgc.org)
CWGC Additional information: Son of Harry and Emma Hartley, of Retford, Nottinghamshire, husband of Winifred Mary Hartley, of Retford.
CWGC headstone personal inscription: In remembrance of my darling husband, Leonard.
128 Squadron was also known as 128 (Gold Coast) Squadron, in honour of the people of the Gold Coast (now Ghana) who had adopted the Squadron.
RAF Downham Market: there is now a memorial at the disused airfield to mark the squadrons, including 128 Squadron, that operated from the airfield 1942-1945.
Photo of Leonard Hartley
Buried in Kiel War Cemetery, Germany (www.cwgc.org)