John William Bell

A Sergeant with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, John died on 8th of November 1941 aged 21. 

John was born at Kessingland on 24 July 1920, a son of Reginald and Winifred May Bell. He was baptised at Saint Edmund’s Church, Kessingland, on 19 September 1920, and his family lived at Saint Elmo, Carlton Colville (it is unclear whether Carlton Colville is an error in the baptism register).  The 1921 Census shows John with his mother, and grandparents William and Maria Tripp, at Dambrook House, Church Road, Kessingland. By 1939 the family home was at Saint Elmo, Church Road, Kessingland.

In 1941 John married Christine Betty Dowsing, this was registered in the Wainford district. Later Christine lived at Carshalton and remarried. 

John enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1937 to train as a pilot. By November 1941 John was a Pilot with 78 Squadron. He was flying a Whitley V bomber, number Z29648 EY-F, from Croft, Yorkshire, on a night raid to Berlin when the aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter near Oudenmirdum, Holland.

All of the other crew of the aircraft were also killed but they are buried at Gaasterland, rather than at the same cemetery as John. The reason for this is unclear.  

WITH THANKS TO :Malcolm Barrass