GREAVES – William George Julian

William George Julian Greaves (1393795) of Grenada

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1393795 – William George Julian Greaves – Grenada – Sergeant – 142 Squadron

Prisoner of War

First Name:                William George Julian
Surname:                    Greaves
DOB:                            17/09/1917
Birthplace:                  Grenada, West Indies
Date of Capture:        15/01/1943
Rank:                           Sergeant
POW Camp:               Stalag Luft 1 Barth
Service Number:       1393795
POW Number:            1311
Theatre Of Capture:  France
Service:                        Royal Air Force
Archive Reference:    WO 416/150/303

Comet Line was a Belgian and French organisation that helped allied airmen who were shot down to return to Great Britain. Their website gives a very detailed account of what happened to Sgt. Greaves in the French language. With various photo’s and documents.
See:  https://www.cometeline.org/ficheC008.html

A very brief summary of the report Sgt. Greaves gave after his liberation of October 19, 1945: He was bomb-aimer on Wellington Mk III, BK536, QT-C of 142 Squadron. On November 20, 1942 they flew from Newmarket UK on a mission to bomb Turin in Germany. Returning they ran out of fuel and all crew were ordered to jump from the plane. Sgt. Greaves was found by the Comet Line organisation about 30 km east of Paris. He was arrested on Januari 15, 1943 while trying to cross the Pyrenees to Spain, in the company of Andrée de Jongh, the 26 year old female leader of the organisation, and two other airmen. After being held at various locations in France he was imprisoned in Stalag Luft I (Aug – Nov 1943), Stalag Luft IV (Nov 1943 – Jul 1944) and Stalag Luft VI (Jul 1944 – Jan 1945). He was liberated by Americans on May 2nd 1945 during a march to a labour camp.

[Courtesy AD]

 

1393795 – William George T. Greaves, Sgt from Grenada.

He could be the W G Greaves mentioned in RAF Commands website as: , POW in L6, POW# 1311

[Courtesy Jerome Lee, CMHA]

 

[Trinidad Guardian 18 January 1944 – Courtesy Jerome Lee, CMHA]

ROSS – Colin Patrick

1393775 – C.P. Ross – Leeward & Windward Islands – attested 18.7.41 – Pilot
132098 – F/O – commissioned 27.10.42 – Missing believed killed – D.P. 3.11.43

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Flying Officer – KIA – Rheinberg War Cemetery, Germany

[Source: CG]

LAWRENCE – Edward Albert Hamilton

1393780 – E.A.H. Lawrence – Leeward & Windward Islands – attested 17.7.41 – Pilot
138151 – F/O – commissioned 3.2.43 – D.I. 10.7.44

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Edward Albert Hamilton Lawrence, from Grenada, where his Father was Reverend Frank Lawrence with the Methodist church.

[Source: Mrs. Jane Smith-Hamilton]

ARTHUR – Jackson Dunbar (‘Jack’)

Sergeant – KIA – Oxford (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire, UK

[Source: CG]

1394300 – Jackson Dunbar (Jack) Arthur – Grenada – Sergeant – KIA 17 September 1943 – Oxford  (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire, UK

[Courtesy AD]

SCOON – Jellicoe Esslemonte Norbert Cecil

F/O – pilot

[Source: CG/Jerome Lee]

From Grenada

[Source: Gillian Hill, granddaughter]

 

RAF_student_pilot_Jellicoe_Scoon,_a_West_Indian_from_Trinidad,_in_Parliament_Square_in_London,_26_March_1942._CH5213

West Indians in the Royal Air Force: A Trinidad (!) accountant, Jellicoe Scoon, recently arrived in England as a Royal Air Force recruit. Aircraftman Scoon was accepted as a pilot, completed elementary flying school training with at least fifty hours to his credit, and was then sent to Service Flying Training School.

[Photograph: IWM CH 5213]

 

 

 

 

 

Jellicoe ScoonJellicoe ‘Midnight’ Scoon, according to Squadron Leader Michel Donnet, DFC, of No. 64 Squadron: “…  a black from Trinidad of which we must get rid of because he refuses stubbornly to fly elsewhere than at low altitude…”  (From his book ‘J’ai volé la Liberté’, Mike Donnet, 1968, pages 170-171). In an interview conducted by Mehdi Schneyders in 2011 Mr. Donnet states that on his third day with the Squadron the ‘black from Jamaica’ (!) hedgehopped (his airplane) around a house of a girl he met. For this he was ‘chucked out’ to ‘the islands’ in the north of Scotland, as a means of doing ‘penance’.

[Picture from Mr. Dimitrios Vassilopoulos of Greeks-in-foreign-cockpits, courtesy Mehdi Schneyders]

 

 

A group of colored RAF-officers. Front row, from left: [1] unknown, from Jamaica or Belize; [2] Dusty Miller, from Guyana; [3] S/L Corbett (liason); [4] Ulric Cross, from Trinidad; [5] Johnny Smythe, from Sierra Leone; [6] Vivian Rivero, from Trinidad; (previously erroneously identified as: Mark Walker, from Trinidad);
Second row from left: [1] E.A. Gordon from Jamaica; [4] Percy Massiah, from Trinidad; [5] possibly his brother C.A. Massiah from Trinidad; [6] Vivian Thomas from Manchester, Jamaica; [7] Jellicoe Scoon from Grenada. Third row from left: [1] E.R Braithwaite from Guyana? The rest are as yet unknown to us. We invite our visitors to share the names of any person they recognise. [Names courtesy P.L.U. Cross a.o.; Photograph courtesy Audrey Elcombe, copyright unknown – click to enlarge]  

FERRIS – Joseph Orman

Joseph Ferris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1381860 – Joseph G. Ferris  [Also recorded as Joseph Orman Ferris] – Grenada – Sergeant – 214 Squadron – KIA 15 October 1942

Sergeant JOSEPH G. FERRIS
Service Number:                      1381860
Regiment & Unit/Ship:          Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve  214 Sqdn. Stirling Mark I R9146 BU-S
Date of Death:                          Died 15 October 1942
Buried or commemorated at UDEN WAR CEMETERY Netherlands,  Coll. grave 4. B. 10-12.

From:  https://214squadron.org.uk/Crews_and_losses/Crews_and_losses_Stirling.htm

Took off at 20:00 on a mission to Cologne. Shot down by a night fighter and crashed at 22:56 roughly 1 km South of the railway station of Oss (Noord Brabant), Netherlands. All are buried at Uden War Cemetery.

An article was prepared by Mr Joop Thuring for the regional newspaper about 25 years ago to publish details for the locals / eye-witnesses in view of the circulating rumours. Occasionally Joop visits their graves at Uden.

Crew of Stirling Mark I R9146 BU-S consisted of :

FS Raymond Gerard Brasnett, R/86619, Wireless Operator / Air Gunner, Royal Canadian Air Force, KIA 15 October 1942
Sgt Joseph Ferris, 1381860, Air Bomber, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, KIA 15 October 1942
Sgt Harold Hancocks, 1314850, Air Gunner, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, KIA 15 October 1942, Aged 21
Sgt Jack Holmes, 996754, Flight Engineer, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, KIA 15 October 1942, Aged 30
Sgt Leslie Frank Meadows, 1381714, Navigator / Bomber, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, KIA 15 October 1942, Aged 28
Fg/Off John Mitchell Paape, 411932, Pilot, Royal New Zealand Air Force, KIA 15 October 1942, Aged 28
Sgt Kenneth Penwill Stibbs, 1182389, Air Gunner, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, KIA 15 October 1942, Aged 20

[Source : Joop Thuring, Air War Researcher in The Netherlands and Chorley. Date record last updated : 9 October 2010 – Courtesy AD]

Sergeant

[Source: CG]

No 24 OTU RAF Honeybourne between May and July 1942
[Photograph courtesy of the family of P/O FW Hargreaves who went to 102 Squadron as a Bomb Aimer and then Navigator]

MARRYSHOW – Julian

1391848 – J.A. Marryshow – Trinidad – PIlot – attested 6.6.41

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876 – Nominal Roll of Coloured Candidates, October 1944]

Flying Officer – fighter pilot – 602 Sqn – Spitfire

[Source: CG, UC]

Served 602 Sqn at Peterhead

[Courtesy Mark Salt, Buchan Aero Club/RAF Peterhead Historian]

Son of the late Hon.T.A. Marryshow, CBE, journalist and legislator of Grenada.

[Source: Basil Marryshow, brother]

602 Sqn ‘B’ Flight- Peterhead 1942

602 Sqn ‘B’ Flight – Sumburgh, January 1943

[Photos: Royal Air Force Museum]

Julian Marryshow in the 1980s. He was attending an exhibition at a North London library, researched by Audrey Elcombe, about Black participants in World War 2. The small sepia picture on the bottom of the display is of Julian in his fighter plane. [Source/copyright Audrey Dewjee]


Royal Air Force Flight Lieutenant Julian Marryshow of Grenada in the cockpit of his aircraft during WW II
[Source: Gabriel Christian]