Teenage airman is remembered by the village where his plane crashed
The story of a Second World War airman from Maidstone has been recorded for posterity by a local history society – in Buckinghamshire.
Sgt John Wenham, of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, lost his life when the Wellington bomber in which he was flying crashed only 10 minutes after taking off on a night training exercise on January 4, 1945.
The former Tovil Scout was 19
The five other crew members were also killed.
The crash made a lasting impression on the small community where the aircraft came down, which has echoed across the decades, to the extent that the North Marston Local History Group has just produced a booklet on the crash, including details and photographs of all the crew and eye-witness accounts from villagers who rushed to help search for survivors. Clifford Cheshire was a boy helping his father deliver groceries in the blackout when the darkened village was lit up by a huge fireball from the burning fuel in the aircraft’s nearly full tanks.
Mr Cheshire said: “I heard a terrible crash. From where we were, it looked as if the whole village was on fire.
“We came rushing back and the road in front of us was on fire.. The plane had crashed in the field at the bottom of the hill.”
John Wenham was the son of Arthur and Susan Wenham, of College Road, Maidstone. The family later moved to Penenden Heath Road.
Arthur was a Maidstone businessman, a partner in the firm Topley and Wenham, grocery and provisions merchants, and had a shop near the town’s Style and Winch brewery. He was also churchwarden at St Faith’s Church in Maidstone. John had one elder sister, Joy (now Joy Colbeck). Both were pupils at South Borough School and John was also a Tovil Scout.
In January 1945, Joy had been waiting for a discharge from the WRNS so she could marry, when her husband-to-be arrived with the news that her brother had been killed. Because their leave had not coincided, she hadn’t seen her brother for 12 months.
Mrs Colbeck, now 91, lives in Bedfordshire, but a few years ago she returned to Maidstone to remember her brother at the Tovil Scout Memorial in Cave Hill, where his name is recorded with those of other Tovil Scouts killed in the war – including Dambuster commander Guy Gibson.
John Wenham is buried in Maidstone Cemetery and there is also a cross in his memory in the Tovil Scout hut off Straw Mill Hill.
The North Marston History Club has arranged for a memorial service to be held for all six airmen in their village church on January 6, the 70th anniversary of their deaths.
The amateur historians are also collecting funds to put up a plaque to the airmen in their local church which they hope to unveil in May.
They would be grateful for any donations. Send cheques made out to North Marston History Club to John Spargo, 10 High Street, North Marston, Buckingham, MK18 3PD.
Electronic versions of the group’s booklet North Marston’s Wartime Tragedy are available from Sue Chaplin; email chaplin259@btinternet. com.