Hundreds of strangers pay tribute to Walter
HUNDREDS OF STRANGERS ATTEND FUNERAL OF MODEST WAR HERO
HUNDREDS of strangers turned up to pay their respects to a war hero who died with no family.
An appeal in the M.E.N. saw a huge outpouring of support to honour former RAF bomber pilot Walter Bentley.
A tiny chapel was full and a hundred others stood outside at a funeral for Walter, who died aged 97.
On a crisp December afternoon a dozen RAF standard bearers met the funeral cortege, before Air Cadets and members of the Manchester and Salford University Air Squadron provided a guard of honour. His casket was draped with Union and RAF flags.
But in the end it was not that surprising. Although he had no blood family a service was told he had two other families – the RAF and Salfordians.
And his best friend, Ian Murray, told mourners: “He was from a generation to whom we owe everything.”
Veterans groups, a crew of Greater Manchester firefighters, staff from the care home where he lived his final days, local councillors, the mayor and mayoress of Salford, a 30-strong RAF contingent, and members of the public attended a ceremony at Agecroft Cemetery. As he lived a quiet life for 60 years in the same house in Cedar Drive, Clifton, few knew of his courage in the heat of one of the most notorious battles of the Second World War because he didn’t like ‘fuss.’
Walter was born in Lord Street, Lower Broughton, and was 21 years old when he was called up for military service in 1942. Two years earlier he had tried to sign up as an RAF pilot at a recruitment office in London but was told he was unlikely to be suitable as he did not have a good enough grasp of mathematics.
Owen Hammond, retired RAF flight lieutenant and secretary of Salford Veterans Network, in a tribute to Walter, told the congregation: “He told the recruitment officer ‘I though I was meant to fight Germans, not educate them.’”
He described Walter as a modest, self-effacing man, who worked at CWS furniture factory on Dumers Lane, Radcliffe, and later as a bus driver for Salford City Transport. His hobby was building model railway engines.
He was selected to be a pilot with the RAF and was posted to Number 570 Squadron, stationed in Berkshire.
Walter’s first flight was on September 23rd 1944, ferrying food and ammunition in a Short Stirling four-engine bomber to drop to beleaguered airborne Allied troops fighting in vain for Arnhem Bridge in Holland. On the way to the dropping zone he was shot down near the town of Nijmegen.
He fought with the controls as he desperately tried to save the lives of his five crew members. With one wing on fire he crashed in the nearest field.
All six on board walked from the wreck and found themselves safely just behind Allied lines.
Just seven days later Walter was back in England and airborne again at the controls of another Stirling bomber.
He went on to complete many more combat missions over Germany and Holland, dropped secret agents in Norway, and in March 1945 towed a glider full of paratroopers through heavy antiaircraft fire during Operation Varsity, the successful crossing of the river Rhine into the heart of Germany.
Speaking after the service, Ian, who had known Walter for 50 years, said: “I thought the funeral was tremendous. We really thought there would only be 15 or 20 people here.
“Walter was modest and he had that lovely knack of being happy with very little. I knew he had been shot down, because he mentioned it in passing. I had no idea to the rest of his service. He just didn’t talk about that. At first I thought describing him as a hero was a bit over the top – but not any more.”
Debbie Ridings, a senior carer at Alderwood Care Home in Boothstown where Walter lived his final few months, attended with her colleague, carer Menira Shaikh. Debbie said: “He was funny and we were very fond of him – there is always the odd one that gets to you and he did.” Wing Commander David Archibald, of the Greater Manchester Wing Air Cadets, said: “Walter gave his time in order that we can live in a free world rather than be dominated by some dictator.”
Walter’s wife, Gladys, died in 2007. The couple did not have any children.
Walter left instructions for the funeral car not to drive slowly, because he hated getting stuck behind a cortege.