NZ40759 Pilot Officer Raymond Gordon Eccles, 10/4/1915-16/5/1941.

Photo from "Online Cenotaph."

In Dunedin's Southern Cemetery is recorded the death on air operations "over Holland" of Raymond Gordon Eccles in 1941.

I have found little online about PO Eccles but can tell this story -

Raymond was the pilot of a 103 Squadron (RAF) Vickers Wellington bomber which he flew on a bombing mission to Hannover, Germany on the date of his death.  Other crews reported that he had made a radio call to announce that his port engine had failed.  His plane crashed near Oude Pekela, Holland and two of the four crew died.  The four others were taken prisoner.

Raymond's fate was unknown for some time.  He was posted as missing a few days after his death and then "missing, believed killed in action" after a month.  In October of that year he was announced as "previously reported missing, believed killed, death now officially presumed to have occurred in May."  It must have been an agonising several months for his family and this last announcement may still not have brought them closure.

His death is acknowledged in the newspapers in late December that year and it would have been an unhappy Christmas.  Raymond's mother died the following February.

Southern Cemetery, Dunedin.  DCC photo.

FOR THE EMPIRE’S CAUSE

In Memoriam

ECCLES — In loving memory of our dear son and brother, Pilot Officer Raymond Gordon Eccles, killed in operations on May 16, 1941. “Our dearest possessions are memories of you.”

— Inserted by his loving father, sisters, Florence and Myrtle.  -Otago Daily Times, 15/5/1948.

NZ Wargraves Project photo.