Early Life.
Kenneth Buckler Lewis was born on the 30th August 1911 at Norbury, Croydon.
His father, Frank William Lewis, was born on the 30th November 1885 at Westminster, Middlesex and married his mother, Maude Lucy Savill, who was born on the 11th June 1882 at White Roding, Essex, in 1905 at Rochford, Essex. They had three children:
1. Frank Oliver Lewis born in 1905 at Rochford. 2. Zillah Grace Lewis born in 1909 at St. George, Hanover Square died in 1920. 3. Kenneth Buckler Lewis.
During the 1911 census the family were living at 25, Newlands Road, Norbury, Croydon, Surrey and Kenneth’s father was a Metropolitan Police Detective Constable. At the time of the 1921 census they were living at 9, Turner Buildings, St George’s Hanover Square & St Margaret and St John, London and Kenneth was recorded as being at school full time and his father was now working as a Detective Sergeant.
Australia Bound.
On the 3rd November 1925 at London, Kenneth, shown as a scholar boarded the Jervis Bay (the ship was owned by the Commonwealth Line and named after the Australian bay of the same name. She was one of five large liners that operated in the immigrant trade between the United Kingdom and Australia), enroute to Melbourne, Australia. He was listed as aged 14 and living at 9 Romney Buildings, Millbank, Westminster. He may have been travelling with Rosen A. Old and her three teenage children who came from Paddington.
Whilst living in Australia he went on to work as a farmer and was employed by a George Young of Nowie South Via Swan Hill in Victoria. It’s not known how long he stayed in Australia but in 1931 the Electoral Roll shows that his parents and brother were living at 6, North Villas, St. Pancras.
Kenneth must have returned to the UK before October 1934 as he joined the Hertfordshire Constabulary that year.
Kenneth Buckler Lewis Police Service.
Kenneth’s Police Service Record has survived and his Form 3 Hertford County Constabulary Record Sheet holds the following information. His date of appointment to the Hertfordshire Constabulary as Police Constable 64 was the 7th February 1935 although he had been examined by the Police Surgeon on the 4th September 1934 and who declared, “I hereby Certify that I have examined the above candidate as to his health and bodily strength and consider him fit for the Constabulary of this County”. He would probably been interviewed at Hatfield Police Headquarters around the same time.
He gave his age on joining as 23 years and that he was born at Norbury on 30th August 1911. He was 5 feet 11 ¼ ins tall, had a 36 ½ inch chest, a fair complexion, blue eyes, brown hair and had no distinguishing marks. He gave his religion as Church of England. He stated that he could both ride a cycle and swim. He gave his next of kin as his father Frank William Lewis.
His Police career actually started on Monday 24th September 1934, with a salary of £2/2/- per week, when as a Probationer he started his training at Hatfield Headquarters in the 52nd class of recruits under Instructor Sergeant 206 Hales. On the 1st February 1935 he passed his Ambulance Certificate, an important qualification which entitled him to wear a First Aid badge on the lower left sleeve of his tunic.
First Posting.
Having been Appointed on the 7th February 1935 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/2/- and the next day he was posted to B Division Hatfield Police Station.
On the 9th February 1935 Kenneth was Approved of and sworn in before G.W. Cole-Hamilton JP and Roland Smith JP at Hertford.
On the 7th February 1936 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/5/- per week.
From the 27th April 1936 Kenneth was off sick with Influenza for 14 days.
On the 7th February 1937 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/7/6 per week.
A Minor Infraction.
On the 17th April 1937 Kenneth was found guilty of discreditable conduct in that he did receipt without payment certain intoxicating liquor from a club secretly and did consume same at the De Havilland Club Hatfield on 17th April 1937. He was reprimanded vide Police Order 61/1937.
From the 31st December 1937 Kenneth was off sick for 12 days with a bronchial cold.
On the 7th February 1938 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/10/- per week.
Transferred.
On the 28th March 1938 Kenneth was transferred to C Division Watford Police Station.
On the 7th February 1939 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/12/6 per week.
Marriage.
Kenneth was married on the 3rd June 1939 at the Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew and St. George, Stockton to Marjorie Picken, who was born on the 23rd January 1916 at Stockton. They had no children.
Published in the Daily Gazette for Middlesbrough on Monday 5th June 1939 under the headline Stockton Wedding: At the Presbyterian Church of St. Andrew and St. George, Stockton, on Saturday, the Rev. W, Reid officiated the marriage of Mr. Kenneth B. Lewis, youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Lewis, of Buntingford, Herts., and Miss Marjorie Picken, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Percy D. Picken, of Stockton. The bride’s father was for some time yard manager for W. Bambridge, of Thornaby and is now with the successors of that firm. The bridegroom’s father, Mr. W. K. Lewis, is a retired officer of the C.I.D., Scotland Yard. The bride, who was given away by her father, wore a dress of ivory lace with an embroidered veil and earned a trailer bouquet of red roses. Two sisters of the bride, Misses Joan and Irene Picken were bridesmaids and Mr. Norman Evans, cousin of the bride, was best man.
Qualified For Promotion to Sergeant.
Kenneth qualified for promotion to the rank of Police Sergeant in 1939.
Transferred.
On 8th June 1939 Kenneth was transferred to D Division Northchurch. In the 1939 register Kenneth is shown as a Police Constable living, with Marjorie, in the Police Cottage, Berkhamsted.
In the 1939 Register Kenneth’s parents were recorded as living at Foxglades, Aspenden, Hertfordshire. Kenneth’s father was shown as a retired Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector. In 1924 he had led a team, at the request of the Hertford County Constabulary, that carried out enquiries into the supposed murder of a woman in a fire in 1917 at the Red Lion Public House at Aspenden. He liked the area so much that he later bought a plot of land and built a house in the village.
On the 7th February 1940 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/15/- per week.
On the 14th March 1940 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £3/17/6 per week.
From the 11th November 1940 Kenneth was off sick for 7 days with an injury to a foot which he suffered whilst on duty Vide CC 24814/40 of 1940.
On the 7th February 1941 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £4/-/- per week.
On the 7th February 1942 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £4/2/- per week.
On the 7th February 1943 Kenneth’s pay was increased to £4/4/- per week.
On the 27th June 1943 Kenneth left Hertfordshire Constabulary on being mobilised into the RAF.
Royal Air Force Service.
Kenneth’s Royal Air Force Service Record is held by the Ministry of Defence, but we know from documents that are publicly available that he enlisted at Cardington after October 1942 in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR).
The RAFVR was formed in July 1936 to provide individuals to supplement the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) which had been formed in 1925 by the local Territorial Associations. The AAF was organised on a Squadron basis, with local recruitment similar to the Territorial Army Regiments. Initially the RAFVR was composed of civilians recruited from the neighbourhoods of Reserve Flying Schools, which were run by civilian contractors who largely employed as instructors members of the Reserve of Air Force Officers (RAFO), who had previously completed a four year short service commission as pilots in the RAF. Navigation instructors were mainly former master mariners without any air experience. Recruits were confined to men of between 18 and 25 years of age who had been accepted for part time training as Pilots, Observers and Wireless Operators. The object was to provide a reserve of aircrew for use in the event of war. By September 1939, the RAFVR comprised 6,646 Pilots, 1,625 Observers and 1,946 Wireless Operators
When war broke out in 1939 the Air Ministry employed the RAFVR as the principal means for aircrew entry to serve with the RAF. A civilian volunteer on being accepted for aircrew training took an oath of allegiance (‘attestation’) and was then inducted in to the RAFVR. Normally he returned to his civilian job for several months until he was called up for aircrew training. During this waiting period he could wear a silver RAFVR lapel badge to indicate his status.
By the end of 1941 more than half of Bomber Command aircrew were members of the RAFVR. Most of the pre-war pilot and observer NCO aircrew had been commissioned and the surviving regular officers and members of the RAFO filled the posts of flight and squadron commanders. Eventually of the “RAF” aircrew in the Command probably more than 95% were serving members of the RAFVR.
During 1943, the decision was taken by the Air Ministry to raise an order for members of the RAFVR to remove the brass and cloth ‘VR’s worn on the collars and shoulders of officers and other ranks (respectively), as these were viewed as being divisive. No similar order was raised for members of the Auxiliary Air Force, who retained their ‘A’s on uniforms at that time. (Source Forces War Records).
Kenneth was a Sergeant Air Gunner 1869643 in the No. 84 Operational Training Unit RAF (84 OTU). 84 OTU was formed in September 1943 at RAF Desborough to train night bomber crews with the Vickers Wellington.
His death certificate records that he died on the 3rd February 1944 near Scofton village Worksop, Sergeant 1869643 of 84 Operational Training Unit a Mid Upper Gunner, died due to War Operations, informant F.V. Carpenter, Station Adjutant, RAF Station Finningley.
The International Bomber Command Centre and the RAF Worksop Memorial websites show that a Vickers Wellington X Serial Number HE749 from No. 84 Operational Training Unit took off on the 3rd February 1944 from Desborough on a day time Operation. The Wellington was armed with live bombs and set out on a navigation task. At approximately 4 p.m. the Wellington, by now low on petrol, was seen closing on Worksop airfield but it seems the pilot was not happy with his approach for the engine note increased and the bomber began to overshoot.
However, the angle of attack was quite steep and before levelling out the aircraft stalled, plunging to the ground with the port engine spluttering. On impact the bomb load exploded, scattering debris over a wide area and killing all seven of the crew: Flight Sergeant Colin Arthur Harrison, RNZAF (Pilot), Pilot Officer Clifford Craven Lumby (Navigator), Sergeant Howard Leighton Mein, RCAF, Flight Officer John Waring (Air Bomber), Sgt. John Robinson Ballantyne (Wireless Operator), Sgt. Kenneth Buckler Lewis (Air Gunner) and Flight Sgt. Aubrey Ernest Walter Budden (Air Gunner).
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission record shows: “In Memory of Sergeant Air Gunner Kenneth Buckler Lewis 1869643, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve who died on 3rd February 1944 Remembered with Honour Aspenden (St. Mary) Churchyard”. He is buried in the new portion of the churchyard south of the church.
Kenneth’s Probate record shows: Kenneth Buckler Lewis of the Police Cottage, Northchurch died 3rd February 1994 on war service. His effects went to his widow Marjorie Lewis.
The final entries on Kenneth’s Police Form 3 Record Sheet show his date of removal from the Force to be the 3rd February 1944, the cause of his removal from the Force as Killed in flying accident in RAF and the amount of Superannuation to be £30 per annum to widow.
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