Reginald Ernest Marshall

A Flight Sergeant with Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Reginald died on 3rd of April 1945 aged 39. 

Reginald was born at Lowestoft on 14 April 1905, a son of Charles Pooley Marshall and Eliza Edith Marshall. He was baptised at Saint Margaret’s Church on 16 May 1905 and his family lived at 26 Princes Road and this was still their home in 1921, when Reginald worked as a driller for Colby Brothers Boat Builders, at Oulton Broad. His parents were still living at 26 Princes Road in 1939. In 1939 Reginald was living at 278 Saint Osyth Road, Clacton, and he worked as a general labourer. 

Reginald enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve after April 1941. By April 1945 Reginald was an Air Gunner serving with 196 Squadron based at Shepherds Grove, Suffolk. 

On 3 April Reginald was a member of the crew of a Stirling IV bomber, number LK193, that was flying to Denmark on a sortie taking supplies to the S.O.E. His aircraft dived into the sea off Cromer, possibly due to engine failure combined with a heavy payload. 

WITH THANKS TO: Malcolm Barrass