We learned fate of RAF man thanks to the Mail
WHEN builders renovating a house found a collection of letters detailing the dramatic last moments of a Second World War RAF airman under floorboards, they began a quest to reunite them with his family.
After having no luck finding the relatives of Sergeant Norman Tinsley, a radio operator who died on a bombing mission, they handed the documents to a local historian who enlisted the Daily Mail’s help.
We have now been able to hand over the crumpled manilla envelope, stuffed with more than 30 telegrams, handwritten letters of condolence and photographs, to the airman’s astonished relatives more than 70 years after his death.
The communications begin with a 1945 telegram from RAF North Killingholme in Lincolnshire which states: ‘N. Tinsley is reported missing from operations’.
Over the course of a series of letters and documents sent to 20year-old Sgt Tinsley’s parents, George and Emma, at their home in Bury, Greater Manchester, the fate of their son is revealed.
One letter from the Air Ministry, two months after he disappeared, explains how Sgt Tinsley had been among the crew of a Lancaster bomber involved in a mid-air collision with another aircraft over France as they flew back from a mission to Ludwigshafen, near Heidelberg, western Germany, on February 1, 1945.
The correspondence states that five members of crew baled out safely but there had been no trace of him. The envelope also includes handwritten notes to Sgt Tinsley’s parents from his airforce pals, best friend and other relatives.
The Mail’s experts discovered that Sgt Tinsley’s mother had a brother, Joseph, whose two granddaughters, Sandra Colls, 62, and her sister Gillian Carter, 69, still live near Bury and we were delighted to hand over the lost letters.
Mrs Carter said: ‘It’s so poignant. It really brings it home, these young lads gave everything for us.’
Sandra Burke, 79, whose late builder husband Brian found the letters, said: ‘When I started to read them, they touched my heart.’