ALGAR, Alan. PM. WW2.

Died 5/10/1940, Age 19. Sergeant, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 61 Sqdn. Service Number 970031.

Alan ALGAR was born, and his birth registered in Derby, on 18 August 1921. His parents were George Algar from Fressingfield, Suffolk, a beer retailer, and Violet Annie Algar (nee D’Altroy) from Manchester, who married in the autumn of 1908 at Derby Registry Office.

In 1911 the Census shows his parents lived at 22 Dexter Street, Derby, and had two children. By the 1921 Census, George and Violet were living at 273, Osmaston Road, Derby, with their son Kenneth George Algar.

Alan ALGAR was born in the autumn of 1921, after the census date. On 26 April 1925 their daughter Barbara Mary Algar died aged 15, and on 30 Apr 1925, she was buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery, Plot: A17/*/28308. His father George Algar died at The Grange Hotel, Douglas Street, Derby on the 5 June 1933 and on 8 Jun 1933 he was also buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery, also Plot: A17/*/28308

In 1934 his mother Violet Annie married Charles Leslie Bexson, and in the 1939 Register the Bexsons were living at 390 Stenson Road, Derby with Alan ALGAR now listed as “Alan Bexson”, a junior draughtsman.

Alan ALGAR was a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Service Number 970031, serving in 61 Squadron, Bomber Command, based at Hemswell, Lincolnshire and on 6 Oct 1940 he was flying in a Handley-Page Hampden Mk1 twin-engine medium bomber, Serial Number X2920, as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. He lost his life when they flew into high ground at Hartoft, near Rosedale Abbey, Yorkshire when returning in bad weather from a mine laying sortie to the Elbe Estuary in North West Germany. The contemporaneous RAF Operations Record Book gives the crash location as Leeming, Yorkshire, some 30 miles from Hartoft; this could possibly be because RAF Leeming was the nearest RAF airfield.

The RAF Operations Record Book page shows the same crew on two missions, the last entry on the page details the fatal operation, encoded as “gardening” means an operation to lay mines at sea, with the mines referred to as “vegetable”. The raid target "Eglantine" was a WWII code name used by the RAF Bomber Command to identify a specific minefield area located in the Heligoland approaches of the North Sea. Alan ALGAR is correctly named for the first mission, however on the record entry for the fatal mission there is a typographical error and he is named “Alan Afgar”.

Alan ALGAR’s plane crashed on its return journey, almost certainly in the darkness of the early hours of 6 October 1940, however his death is officially recorded as being on 5 October 1940 when the mission departed RAF Hemswell.

He was buried in Nottingham Road Cemetery in the family plot. His mother Violet Annie Bexson (wife of Charles Leslie Bexson) was granted probate for his effects valued at £213 4s 1d.

Sources: Derby Census of 1911 and 1921 and the 1939 Register. Register of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Derby. RAF Operations Record Book. Newspaper articles and announcements.

The headstone was laid flat, by the CWGC, after it became unstable due to a large holly tree and wild rose that have since been cut back.