As this story from Association Member Nicola Gaughan shows, the hunt for information about past events can be a long and tortuous path.

From an early age I had known about my Uncle Jim, one of my father’s six brothers, whose aircraft had gone missing during World War 2. Apparently, the youngest ever Pilot Officer flying the Wellington, Uncle Jim had also possibly been a navigator. I knew that the family had been devastated by his loss, particularly my Grandmother, who for years hoped he would one day return. Sometimes I heard stories of other WWII planes being found together with the remains of the pilot and I would think to myself “wouldn’t it be nice if they found Uncle Jim one day”.

Over the years, the brothers (my uncles) died until just two were left after my father died in 2006. Eventually there was just Uncle Pat and his health was fast deteriorating. At this stage the thought came to me that perhaps I could find Uncle Jim’s plane myself and tell his last brother what had happened, before he too passed away. I was daunted by the task. How on earth could I find a plane lost over 70 years ago, when the RAF hadn’t been able to? Where and how should I start?

After just a couple of hours on the internet, I had found details of the raid, the weather, and the names of the five crewmembers that had died with Uncle Jim. It had never occurred to me that other people were involved and it suddenly brought things home – five other families probably didn’t know what had happened to their loved ones. So I decided that I had to continue the search and to share any information I discovered with the families of the other crew members.

So the internet search continued and I discovered various war forums, and through one in particular, ww2talk.com, I got lots of guidance, information and encouragement. After creating a forum thread I was able to post information as I went along: to help me keep a record, to ensure important discoveries weren’t lost if I had a computer failure at home, and to share the information.

This forum led me to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) website and I was able to locate personal and family details for all of the crew, except one (more of that later). I also discovered how to retrieve Uncle Jim’s service record, and after a very frustrating 3 month wait, I finally received photocopies of Sgt James Edward Linehan’s service records. It was fascinating to try and decipher the various entries, and with the help of the Department of Research & Information Services at RAF Hendon, I learnt that my uncle had joined the Volunteer Reserve in July 1940, progressed through various flying schools and gained his wings in April 1941.

He then joined 52 OTU to fly Spitfires however, according to my family, after crashing a couple of Spitfires, he was transferred to Bomber Command and joined 11 OTU in July 1941, then joined 57 Squadron on 6 November 1941 whilst they were based at RAF Feltwell. Uncle Jim became a Sergeant in December 1941 and was promoted to Flight Sergeant in February 1942.

From the National Archives at Kew I discovered that he had flown Wellington Mk1s, Mk2s and Mk3s, and that he was lost on his 12th mission - a raid on Hamburg. He had flown as 2nd pilot and with two different crews, and there were further details of the targets and bomb loads for all the raids and the ‘trades’ of the other crewmen: Plt Off Noel Percy Morse RNZAF (Pilot), Flight Sergeant George Hillary Vogan RNZAF (Observer), Sergeant Graham Lakeman (W/T 1), Sergeant Norman Joseph Naylor (W/T 2) and the Rear Gunner, Sergeant Ronald Richards.

It was a great feeling to learn more about the other crew members, but the information on the CWGC website was pretty patchy, with Morse’s family details being the most complete and Richards’ being non-existent; I started with Morse.

His father was Percy Algernon Morse and with a name like that it didn’t take too long to find his obituary in the Sydney Morning Herald from 1946. My search for more information continued with the Herald, a variety of genealogy web forums, and I checked the Australian White Pages, even telephoning a couple of Morse families until I realised this might be a bit too much.

The internet didn’t help much with Vogan; I posted a request for information on Cousinconnect.com, and also a Facebook message to a friend in New Zealand asking if she could help via her network. From friends on ww2talk.com I got the NZ white pages which listed several Vogans, including two from Vogan’s home area. Then I got an email via Cousinconnect.com from a distant Vogan cousin, who passed my request to nearer family and I finally received an email from the granddaughter of Vogan’s father’s younger brother, and who was able to give me more detailed information as well as a photo of him.

The previous month I had received a fantastic Christmas present - a response from Australia via the Sydney Morning Herald from Russell Wenholz, who was one of Noel Morse’s nephews. We shared the information we had, including letters from Percy Morse to the RNZAF and others. Russell and his family were extremely grateful, and sent me information and some pictures of Morse, who preferred to be known as Bill.

Having traced the Antipodean families, I turned my attentions to the UK crew members, starting with Sgt Graham Lakeman. According to the CWGC, he had been born in Plymouth and had been an only child. I thought I might not find any living family, but then I found his family in the 1901 census and discovered Lakeman’s father Sidney Harold was one of 8 children - surely I would find someone.

I contacted the local newspapers and was interviewed on air by BBC Plymouth, but to no avail. Then, within some of my father’s paperwork, I found a letter from Lakeman’s father to my grandfather - Uncle Jim’s father - asking if they had heard any news. It was addressed from Greenock in Scotland. Wondering if the family had been bombed out during the Plymouth bombing and moved north to stay with friends or family, I contacted the Greenock Times and they ran an article for me, but again no luck. In desperation I started to ring Lakemans whose numbers I found on the Internet, but always it was the same thing - they weren’t the right family.

Just as I thought my enquiries were running cold, I was contacted by Ken Lakeman’s son Terry Lakeman, a keen genealogist and researcher. Terry didn’t know anything about Graham, however, quite by chance, Terry was told of a surviving relative of Harold Sidney Lakeman, brother of Sgt Lakeman’s father Sidney Harold Lakeman. Reta Riddler, a lady of 88, was the last child of Harold; Terry decided to visit her and to tell her of my search.

I’ve found the search to be very interesting, frustrating, exciting and unexpectedly emotional. On many occasions I’ve been brought to tears. Each snippet of information has added more to the story leading me onwards to the next connection. I’m proud of what I’ve achieved and what I’ve been able to do for the crew and their families; the closure of sorts that I’ve been able to bring to families still grieving for their loved ones. I’m also immensely proud of what my uncle and his crew, and many thousands like them did for us.

I am continuing the search for the plane itself and hopefully one day I will be able to write about its recovery and the repatriation of any remains.