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On August 28th 1941 an aircraft ditched in the sea in Rhosneigr Bay, Anglesey, close to RAF Station Valley. In an effort to rescue the crew of the aircraft 14 men lost their lives. Among them was Leslie Arthur Ford, my father. At the time I was thirteen months old, and so have no tangible recollections of him. All that I knew was what I heard from my mother and my grandmother. I grew up aware that he had died in heroic circumstances, and together with my mother or grandmother I would visit his grave in Farnham, Surrey. I had never seen the place where he had died, and of course never had any communication with him. When my grandmother died I came across various documents that related to the incident, but consigned them to a deed box, glancing at them only occasionally.

It was only after my mother died, and after we had placed her ashes in the same grave in Farnham, that an extraordinary set of circumstances occurred that reawakened my interest in the whole matter. The story is as follows:

In 1998 we decided to have new units fitted in the kitchen. The work involved removing a concrete shelf for a food storage cupboard, and the fitter was concerned that this would have steel reinforcements, meaning extra costs. Knowing that my neighbour of 20 years earlier had removed such a shelf, I decided to ‘phone him for confirmation. As he lives in Anglesey I asked him if he was anywhere near Rhosneigr, which prompted him to ask why I was interested. I explained that my father had died in an air accident during the war. He then amazed me by saying that in the local paper there was a letter that very week about the accident, written by someone who had witnessed it. I subsequently wrote to the paper expressing my amazement at the coincidence. A surprising outcome was that I received a cheque for £20 for the letter, following its publication, but even more surprising was the ‘phone call I received one evening. It was from Arthur Jones, the son of the coastguard who had died in the same accident. For Arthur, my letter was like a “blast from the past”, for in 1991, after some years of effort, he had managed to organise the construction and consecration of a memorial to all the men who had died. At the time he had made many attempts to contact relatives of the men, but to no avail. Then suddenly he read my letter. He and his wife Mair invited us to Anglesey and took us to see the memorial, as well as giving us a video of the whole memorial service.

It was at that point, while seeing for the first time the beach where the accident had occurred, that I realised that I wanted to have a personal memorial to the father that I never knew, to honour his courage and sacrifice. In a small way that is the aim of the album that I produced.

The story that follows consists of extracts from the album, together with some copies of the letters that were exchanged prior to and subsequent to the tragic accident.

Leslie Arthur Ford and my mother Katharine Anne Hughes became engaged in 1933, when they were both 21. Leslie was the only son of Arthur and Edith Ford, of 54, Albion Gate, Albion St., W.2. Katharine was the second daughter of Ernest and Jane Hughes, of 64 Alderney St., Pimlico, SW At the time Leslie was working for Shell Petroleum at Shell-Mex House in London, and Katharine was with Lewis’s Ltd. The engagement ring was bought on 11th February from St Helen’s Court Stores in the City, and cost £15 12s 8d.

Leslie and Katharine were engaged for four years until their marriage in 1937.
The wedding ring, also bought from The St Helen’s Court Stores, cost £3 1s 6d.

98 of Leslie’s colleagues at Shell subscribed to a wedding gift. The gift was a bureau to match the furniture from E Gomme, and is inscribed “Presented to L.A.Ford on the occasion of his marriage. 1st June 1937. From his friends at Shell-Mex and B.P.”

The wedding took place at St Gabriel’s Church Pimlico on June 1st.

They had made the decision to live in Surrey and had taken a mortgage on a new house at 103 Newbury Gardens, Stoneleigh and completion occurred on July 9th 1937.

By 1939 the threat of war with Germany had become real, and on 24th August Leslie was called up to join 615 Auxiliary Air Force Squadron at Kenley in Surrey.

War broke out on September 3rd which was Katharine’s 28th birthday. Since I was born in July 1940, and was nearly a month late, it can be assumed that, as for many young married couples in those uncertain times, leave nights were not wasted.

There is no information about the course of the war from Leslie’s point of view, apart from the non-combatant details in his letters to Katharine. As is so often the case, only when all the contemporaries have gone does one want to ask all the questions!!
From hearsay I do know that Leslie was in France prior to the Battle of Britain, and that he was part of the mass of service personnel who returned at the time of Dunkirk.

The information that follows is based on details obtained from various sources, including details gathered from the ORB of 615 Squadron, on microfilm at the Public Records Office, about what the Squadron was doing between September 1939 and August 1941.
No 615 Squadron was formed on 1 June 1937 at Kenley as an army co-operation unit of the Auxiliary Air Force. After flying Audaxes and Hectors, it became a fighter squadron on 7 November 1938 and received Gauntlets. These were replaced by Gladiators in May 1939, which the squadron took to France in November 1939 as part of the Air Component of the BEF. From Leslie’s RAF Form 543 it seems possible that he went to France on 7th January 1940.
At the start of the war the Officer Commanding was Squadron Leader AV Harvey, the Adjutant was Pilot Officer W Stern, there were 13 Officers, 10 Airman Pilots and 117 Airmen. At this point Leslie was a humble Aircraft Hand.
On the 9th September the Squadron was visited at Kenley by Winston Churchill.
On the 5th October 1939 Airmen were granted 48 hours leave following the news that the Squadron would be moving to Northern France in November to assist the BEF.
On 15th November they moved to Merville in N.France with 16 Gladiators.

On 6th December there was a visit by HM King George VI to Lille/Seclin in France.
On 13th December the move was made to Vitry-en-Artois to the west of Douai. There was a small detachment stationed further west at St.Inglevert.
In January 1941 113 Airmen arrived at Vitry by rail, and it can be assumed that Leslie was in this group.
On 9th January they were visited at Vitry by Winston Churchill.
On 1st March Leslie was promoted to the rank of AC1.

It has been possible to find some documentation about personnel in 615 Squadron at the time that Leslie was with them in France.

The following account is by a pilot in 615 Squadron:

At 0530 hrs 3 sections of 3 aircraft (Hurricanes) of 615 Squadron left Moorseele aerodrome (Nr Courtrai) on a patrol. Three miles (approx.) West of Brussels my section leader attacked a Henschel, Nos 2 (myself) and 3 in line astern position on him. Heavy anti-aircraft fire forced me to break to the right, no 3 following me, and we lost contact with the leader as we all had a different R/T frequency. A few minutes after, I sighted an aircraft below me to the right and proceeded to go down to investigate. I lost sight of this aircraft and, on regaining original ht (4000 ft), I discovered I was alone. I proceeded to patrol the West of Brussels in long zig zag North and South course gradually creeping West. After my combat with the two Henschels I steered a course due West. I eventually landed at Coulpiegne where I was informed by French personnel on the landing ground that I was approximately 30 miles South of Lille. I therefore took off with a view to landing on Vitry aerodrome. I found myself later over very wooded and hilly country and decided to forced land in a ploughed field approx. 600 yds long and into wind. One side of the field is the main Paris-Dieppe road and on the other the Foret de Bray. I circled the field once, lowered my undercarriage etc. and as I was on the cross wind leg of the approach into the field my petrol supply ran out and I could not restart the engine with the emergency starter on the gravity tank should it have contained any petrol. I therefore only had just enough time to pancake the aircraft on top of the trees and crash through. I left the aircraft in the care of the local Police at Forges Les Eaux, and proceeded to Poix by road and thence to Abbeville by air.

The following account comes from a biography of the South African pilot P.H.(Dutch) Hugo who joined No. 615 (County of Surrey) Squadron at Vitry, in France. This Auxiliary Air Force Squadron was equipped with Gloster Gladiators at the time, and he had his first operational flights in these obsolete biplanes.

“The weather was so bad at Vitry-en-Artois that Nos. 615 and 607 Squadrons (both part of the Northern Air Component, and both flying Gladiators) found it easier to operate from St. Ingelvert nearby. Even here, the severe frost made the muddy ruts dangerous as they froze hard, and on 18th December 1939 a pilot of No.615 Squadron was killed when his Gladiator crashed on landing. However, on 29th December, one of the Flight Commanders, Flight Lieutenant J. G. Sanders, nearly destroyed a Heinkel 111 at 23,000 feet, firing a long burst into him at close range, but no confirmation of destruction was received as the He 111 dived into cloud and disappeared.
Dutch Hugo and his fellow pilots in No.615 Squadron suffered the boredom and appalling weather of winter, 1940, doing practice escort affiliations with the Lysanders of Nos. 2 and 26 (Army Co-operation) Squadrons, but were delighted towards the end of April, 1940, when they were warned to prepare to re-equip with Hurricanes.
In early May the German offensive began which was to culminate in the evacuation of the BEF from Dunkirk.

Again, an excerpt from Hugo’s biography:-

“The events following the 10th May when the Germans struck, however, were to see the old Gladiators fighting in deadly earnest, and both squadrons were constantly in action. Although no records exist it appears that by about 15th May, No.615 Squadron still flew 12 Gladiators and that by 18th these had been joined by 9 Hurricanes.
Two days later Dutch Hugo (I think flying a Hurricane) shot down a He 111, on 20th May, 1940, his first and only success with the RAF Component as far as I know.
The Hurricane pilots were kept at full stretch, putting in as many as six, or even seven, sorties a day. Despite their efforts it was decided that the Component could operate as effectively, and with a great deal more security, from the south of England. The 21st May saw the Hurricanes return to Britain; 195 had been lost and only 66 saved. Most of the Gladiators had been lost, only one or two being flown home to England. The Luftwaffe lost 1,284 aircraft, however, and there is no doubt that a very large number fell to the RAF Component, although it had lost 279 of its own aircraft.
No. 615 returned to England (most of the personnel in the steamer Biarritz from Boulogne, arriving at Dover on 21st May) and at once returned to its home stations of Croydon and Kenley.
On 12th April the Squadron moved by road to Poix, about 25 miles west of Amiens. The airmen were billeted at the village of Hornoy.
On 27th April they moved again, this time to Abbeville and billeted at the tiny village of Le Plessiel, more accurately in camouflaged building in a wood outside the village.
The invasion by the German Army meant that the Squadron was recalled to England, and on the 21st May, just before the activities at Dunkirk, Leslie boarded the steamer Biarritz at Boulogne and returned to Dover. After a brief visit to Tidworth, they returned to Kenley. Accommodation was not available for the airmen, so they moved to nearby Croydon, where there was also a lack of room. As a result the airmen were put up “in a disused girls’ school nearby, where there were no beds, but blankets could be found.”
There is the distinct possibility that this school was the very same one that I went to in 1947 (it housed boys from 5 to 11 years). The school was right at the perimeter of Croydon airfield and the girls had been evacuated to the boys’ school for the duration of the war. Yet another coincidence in this story.
On 27th June King George visited Kenley, and the on 3rd July and 18th August, the airfield was bombed. The latter attack caused the greatest damage.
On 16th September the Squadron was moved north to Prestwick to recoup, and during the time there, on 1st October, Leslie was promoted to Leading Aircraftman.
In a source that I cannot remember, I read that the unit became frustrated at the amount of time they were in Prestwick, and were anxious to return to active duty. It was suggested that some of the officers sought a meeting with Churchill while in London, and expressed their displeasure to him, in his role as the Squadron’s Honorary Air Commodore. Whether or not their complaints were the cause, the Squadron returned to Northolt on 9th October 1940, and were visited by Churchill on 1st November. The Officer Commanding at this stage was Sqn. Ldr. JR Kayll.
By March 1941 they had returned to Kenley, and on the 21st April made the move to RAF Valley in Anglesey.
On 21st June 1941 Pilot Officer Wise became the Adjutant, and on the 11th July there was a new Officer Commanding, Sqn. Ldr. DE Gillam.
On 4th August Pilot Officer Timewell crashed 11 miles to the SE of the base, and the search was conducted by Sqn. Ldr. Gillam and Flight Lt. Hugo.
On 16th August Pilot Officer A Boulanger died when his aircraft crashed near the village of Llanfechel. It was to this crash that Leslie, who was the C.O.’s driver, took Sqn. Ldr. Gillam. Leslie refers to the incident in his letter dated 18th August.
On 26th August a Junkers 88 was brought down by two pilots from the Squadron. This event is recorded in Leslie’s letter of 27th August.

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