Jermyn Samuel Greengrass

A Flying Officer with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Jermyn died on 12th August 1943 aged 26.

Jermyn was born at Lowestoft in 1917. A son of Jermyn Thomas and Agnes Jane Greengrass. He was baptised at Christ Church, Lowestoft, on 27 May 1917, and his family lived at Old Nelson Street. In 1921 his family lived at 16 Royal Avenue, and by 1939 their address was 7 Battery Green Road. 

In 1942 Jermyn married Barbara Mary Eaton. This was registered in the Scarborough district. During the war Barbara served with Princes Mary’s Royal Air Force Nursing Service, and she lived at Hull. Barbara remarried in 1947.  

The 1939 Register shows that Jermyn was a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, number 754695. Later he was promoted to Flight Sergeant before being commissioned as a Pilot Officer on 4 January 1943. He was then promoted to Flying Officer on 6 July 1943. 

By August 1943 Jermyn was a Navigator with 159 Squadron based at Salbani, India. On 12 August he was a member of the crew of a Liberator BII aircraft, number AL 560 ‘N’ which took off for a practice bomb sortie. The aircraft developed engine failure and crashed, soon after take-off, during an overshoot at Salbani. Only one of the crew survived. 

WITH THANKS TO: Malcolm Barrass