The early photographs show Billy as an infant and then a young child on Robben Island. He remained there until 1928, a year after his father’s death. Returning to Kinson in Dorset, we see him as a young boy and then as a young man. Joining the RAF Reserve in 1939, we capture his flying training before he is commissioned in 1940. Official photographs of the Hampden bombers were taken on his 21st birthday, and by unbelievable coincidence, are of his aircraft (AE 257-X) - it’s therefore likely that they show Billy at the controls. The last photographs show the Sage War Cemetery where his body was eventually taken after with War. The final picture hung above his mother’s chair in her drawing room, until she died in 1989.
Billy’s life
These photographs are largely taken from an old album which Billy’s cousin Nancy still has. She very kindly lent them to me and I was able to scan them and make fair copies. Remarkably, with some late additions, this is an almost complete record of his all too short life.
