1162703, Sergeant (Observer), Harold Jack STEEL
Aged 21
Harold Frank STEEL was born on 28th April 1921 (Bury St.Edmunds), son of Albert Edward and Martha Elizabeth STEEL (née POTTER).
In the 1939 register, a Post Office sorting clerk and telegraphist, he was at 20 Grove Road, Bury St.Edmunds with his widowed mother Martha E STEEL [21-4-1893]( His father died in 1936); sister Marjorie E (later Mrs Blackmore) [12-9-1923]; Doreen A HOGG (later Mrs STEEL) [18-2-1920] and a John A VERSEY, [12-4-1883] married, heating engineer. There was one closed record (probably brother Alan who married Doreen and died in 2011). His younger brother Alan E (Peter) STEEL (also an Old Culfordian) served as a signaller with the Army in North Africa and survived the war. |
On 26th February 1943, at 18:49, Vickers Wellington Mk III, ser.no. BJ886, sqn id. ZL-F, of 427 RCAF Squadron took off from RAF Croft ( near Darlington)
in a mission to Cologne. They crashed at St. Oedenrode (Vleut), shot down by a night fighter.
The crew was :- Pilot - Sgt William Edward HARWOOD (RAF) buried in Eindhoven Navigator P/O Oliver Henry SKELTON (RCAF) buried in Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery Observer - Sgt Harold STEEL (RAF) buried in Eindhoven W/Op/Air Gunner - F.Sgt Theo Curtis SMITH (RCAF) buried in Groesbeek Canadian Cemetery W/Op/Air Gunner - Sgt Vivian Max CAPLIN (RAF) buried in Eindhoven Air Gunner - F/Sgt Charles Francis LEACH (RCAF) buried in Newton (Calvary) Cemetery, U.S.A. For various reasons, their graves are scattered amongst several cemeteries as a result of concentrations. |
photo: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
click here to go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website for full cemetery/memorial details