Tag: 4th cousin

Lewis Richard Frank Jenner: A Royal Army Service Corps Driver Lost in Captivity

Lewis Richard Frank Jenner, a young labourer from Kent, served as a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps during World War II. Missing in June 1942, he was later confirmed as a prisoner of war in Italy and presumed dead by November 14, 1942. He is commemorated at the Alamein Memorial with no known grave.

Lewis Richard Frank Jenner was a Kent-born labourer who made his home in Cambridgeshire before serving as a driver in the Royal Army Service Corps during the Second World War. Reported missing in the Western Desert in June 1942, he was subsequently identified as a prisoner of war in Italian hands. His death was eventually presumed to have occurred between 26 October and 14 November 1942; his official commemorated date is 14 November. He was twenty-two and has no known grave. [1]

Early Life and Family

Lewis was born at Crundale, Kent, on 25 October 1920, the son of Percy Herbert Jenner and Lilian Eleanor May Norrington. His birth was registered in the East Ashford district during the final quarter of that year. In the census of 19 June 1921, he appeared as a seven-month-old infant at Sole Street, Crundale. [1]

His father, Percy, was a labourer born in Sussex, while Lilian came from Elmstead, Kent. Lewis’s older brother, Percy, was two. Three visitors bearing the Norrington surname—Mabel, Fred and Winifred—were also recorded in the household. Although the shared surname suggests a connection with Lilian’s family, the report does not establish their precise relationships. [1]

By September 1939, the Jenners had moved to Middle Watch, Swavesey, Cambridgeshire. Lewis, then eighteen, was single and employed as a contractor’s labourer. His father remained a general labourer, while his mother was recorded as undertaking unpaid domestic duties. The household also included Percy, a farm horseman, Shirley, an errand boy, and the school-aged Matthew and Roy. [1]

These records trace a young working man’s life from rural Kent to Cambridgeshire on the eve of military service. No wife or children are recorded for Lewis. His later casualty information identifies his parents as Percy Herbert and Lilian Elenor May Jenner of Cambridge, using a slightly different spelling of his mother’s name. [1]

Military Service

Lewis served as Driver T/243357 in the Royal Army Service Corps, usually abbreviated to RASC. The supplied records do not give his enlistment date, training establishment or company number. Consequently, his service can be placed securely within the corps and the Middle East theatre, but not within a particular transport company or division. [1]

The RASC was responsible for much of the British Army’s supply and transport organisation. Its work kept troops provided with necessities and moved material through the supply chain. The distinction between supplying equipment and transporting it matters: the Royal Army Ordnance Corps had responsibility for weapons and ammunition, while transport personnel helped move the loads required by formations in the field. [2]

In the Western Desert, transport was fundamental to operations. Armies depended on supplies carried over great distances, often from ports or railheads to forward maintenance areas and then to fighting units. Contemporary transport planning distinguished general-purpose lorry companies from specialist units carrying water, petrol, ammunition or tanks. Without Lewis’s company records, none of those particular duties can safely be assigned to him. [3][4]

Lewis belonged to the transport service that sustained the desert army—but his surviving records tell most clearly the story of his disappearance and captivity.

Royal Army Service Corps context and the casualty-list entries in the family report.

The Western Desert and His Disappearance

The earliest specific operational date in Lewis’s record is 27 June 1942, when he was reported missing in the Western Desert. This was a period of British retreat and severe pressure around Mersa Matruh. Contemporary reporting described Axis forces advancing towards the town and repeated Allied air attacks against them. [1][5][6]

That wider setting helps explain the circumstances in which transport troops might become separated from their formations, but it does not prove where Lewis was captured. The report supplies neither a location nor an account of the incident. It would therefore be premature to identify him as a casualty of a particular action at Mersa Matruh. [1]

His missing status appeared in a casualty-list entry dated 8 September 1942. A later entry refers back to a different list number, an inconsistency within the supplied transcription. The underlying sequence is nevertheless clear: Lewis was initially missing following the events of 27 June and was later reported to be a prisoner of war. [1]

Captivity and Unit Context at the Time of Death

Casualty List No. 981, dated 14 November 1942 in the report, changed Lewis’s status from missing to prisoner of war. Subsequent documentation explicitly described him as having been in Italian hands. That reporting date must not be mistaken for the date of his capture: the earlier operational entry places his disappearance in June. [1]

By the period in which he was presumed to have died, Lewis was therefore a captive rather than a driver carrying out confirmed operational duties with his company. The RASC’s continuing role in the desert campaign provides his military background, but cannot establish his own location or activities during captivity. His individual company, camp and movements remain unidentified in the supplied material. [1][2]

This distinction also prevents a misleading association with the Battle of El Alamein. Lewis is commemorated at Alamein, but the memorial includes men lost across several campaigns and countries. His inscription there does not mean that he died while fighting in the battle itself. [1][7]

Circumstances of Death

The official record continued to change long after Lewis’s presumed death. On 27 May 1944, Casualty List No. 1457 reclassified him as missing, having previously been reported a prisoner in Italian hands. No date for that later disappearance was supplied. This was an administrative revision of his known status, not evidence that he was still alive in May 1944. [1]

On 17 July 1944, Casualty List No. 1500 recorded him as “Presumed Died as Prisoner of War in Italian Hands”, placing his death between 26 October and 14 November 1942. His commemorative information uses the final date in that interval, 14 November. The distinction between an estimated period and an official commemorated date is essential to an accurate account of his fate. [1]

No cause of death is established. The surviving entries do not identify illness, an accident, an attack or a particular prisoner transport. Nor does the report’s broad reference to Egypt establish his exact place of death. Without further evidence, assigning him to a named camp, ship or incident would risk turning an unresolved loss into an invented narrative. [1]

Missing, prisoner of war, missing again, then presumed dead: Lewis’s casualty record preserves uncertainty rather than a complete account of his final days.

Casualty Lists Nos. 981, 1457 and 1500, transcribed in the family report.

Commemoration at Alamein and Swavesey

Lewis is commemorated on Column 75 of the Alamein Memorial in Egypt. Although the family report lists this under “Burial”, it is a memorial inscription, not an identified grave. The memorial forms the entrance to El Alamein War Cemetery, and its Land Forces panels commemorate more than 8,500 Commonwealth soldiers who have no known grave. [1][7]

Those panels encompass the campaigns in Egypt and Libya, part of the Eighth Army’s operations in Tunisia, and service in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Persia. This broad scope explains why Alamein is a place of remembrance for men whose precise burial locations and final movements remain unknown. [7]

Closer to home, Lewis’s initials appear among the Second World War names on Swavesey’s parish memorial. The dedication remembers the men of the parish who fell between 1939 and 1945. Swavesey Parish Council identifies the memorial’s location at the front of St Andrew’s churchyard, beside the main gate. [1][8]

Legacy

The report lists the 1939–45 Star, Africa Star and War Medal among Lewis’s awards, although it does not reproduce the entitlement documents. His service is also preserved in the Army Roll of Honour and the General Register Office’s armed-forces death index. These records identify the soldier consistently through his name, rank and service number. [1]

Lewis’s remembrance belongs both to Crundale, where he was born, and to Swavesey, where he worked and lived before the war. His biography cannot recover every stage of his captivity, but it can preserve what is known without concealing what remains uncertain: a labourer’s son, a young RASC driver, and a prisoner whose loss took nearly two years to receive a formal presumption of death. [1]

Sources and Further Reading

Sources
[1] Individual-Report-for-Lewis-Richard-Frank-Jenner.pdf https://ppl-ai-file-upload.s3.amazonaws.com/web/direct-files/attachments/141549598/b0bae12b-a290-490b-b3b6-f2fba1f66bac/Individual-Report-for-Lewis-Richard-Frank-Jenner.pdf
[2] Royal Army Service Corps https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/royal-army-service-corps
[3] Western Desert campaign – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_Desert_campaign
[4] Motor Transport Organisation and Numbers in 8 Army, November … https://rommelsriposte.com/2013/11/17/motor-transport-organisation-and-numbers-in-8-army-november-1941/
[5] 27 Jun 1942 – BATTLE DEVELOPING NEAR MERSA MATRUH – Trove https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/2562392
[6] Papers Past | Newspapers | Northern Advocate | 27 June 1942 … https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NA19420627.2.30
[7] Alamein Memorial | Cemetery Details | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/131900/alamein-memorial/
[8] Armed Forces Covenant & War Memorial | Swavesey Parish Council https://www.swavesey-pc.gov.uk/community/armed-forces-covenant/
[9] NARA – AAD – Fielded Search – World War II Prisoners of War … https://aad.archives.gov/aad/fielded-search.jsp?dt=3159&tf=F&sl
[10] The Royal Canadian Army Service Corps – Juno Beach Centre https://www.junobeach.org/canada-in-wwii/articles/supplying-canadas-field-army-overseas/the-royal-canadian-army-service-corps/
[11] [PDF] research guide-North Africa.indd – King’s College London https://www.kcl.ac.uk/library/assets/archives/northafrica.pdf
[12] How to search British and international Prisoner of War … https://www.findmypast.co.uk/guides/find-pow-records
[13] Roll of Honour – Cambridgeshire – Swavesey St Andrew https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/SwaveseyStAndrew.html
[14] Driver Lewis Richard Frank Jenner (1920-1942) – Find a Grave https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/14702958/lewis-richard_frank-jenner
[15] Memorial – St Andrew’s Church, Swavesey https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/158316/
[16] Roll of Honour – Cambridgeshire – Swavesey War Memorial Hall https://www.roll-of-honour.com/Cambridgeshire/Swavesey.html
[17] Regiments That Served With The 7th Armoured Division – Desert Rats http://www.desertrats.org.uk/orgothers.htm
[18] Lewis Richard Frank Jenner – Timenote https://timenote.info/en/Lewis-Richard-Frank-Jenner
[19] Lewis Richard Frank Jenner, b.1920 d.1942 – Ancestry® https://www.ancestry.com/genealogy/records/lewis-richard-frank-jenner-24-n4jl4q
[20] El Alamein War Cemetery – Commonwealth War Graves Commission https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/2019000/el-alamein-war-cemetery/
[21] [PDF] 1. Why are there war graves and memorials at El Alamein? https://www.cwgc.org/media/jqublbqy/egypt-alamein-school-visit-resource-en-2025.pdf
[22] Five African War Cemeteries & Memorials to Know | CWGC https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/blog/five-african-war-cemeteries-memorials-to-know/
[23] CWGC marks 75th anniversary of the Battle of El Alamein https://www.cwgc.org/our-work/news/cwgc-marks-75th-anniversary-of-the-battle-of-el-alamein/
[24] 27 Jun 1942 – ENEMY 30 MILES FROM MERSA MATRUH MAIN FORCES … https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/11983100
[25] Alamein Memorial – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alamein_Memorial
[26] Adam Wakenshaw – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Wakenshaw
[27] Obituaries & Death Records (1690-Today) – Search 346M … https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/all-obits
[28] Forces War Records – Historical military records https://ca.forceswarrecords.com/
[29] Service Records – The Military Museums https://themilitarymuseums.ca/learn/service-records
[30] taken pow at mersa matruh 15 june 1942 | WW2Talk https://www.ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/taken-pow-at-mersa-matruh-15-june-1942.29772/
[31] Guards – Egypt Cemeteries list | WW2Talk https://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/guards-egypt-cemeteries-list.32227/

Alfred Walter David Hover 9 Squadron RAF: Lancaster ED477 Night Fighter Casualty 1943

At age 20, Sergeant Alfred Walter David Hover of Littlebourne, Kent, was killed in action as mid-upper gunner aboard Lancaster ED477. Shot down by German night fighter over Ristedt on 31 January 1943, he and his international crew never returned home. His name endures at Rheinberg War Cemetery and in family memory.

Sergeant Alfred Walter David Hover: A Detailed Biography

Sergeant Alfred Walter David Hover was a mid-upper air gunner with No. 9 Squadron RAF, flying Avro Lancaster bombers from RAF Waddington. On the night of 30–31 January 1943, he was killed in action over Germany when his aircraft, Lancaster III ED477 (“Robbie’s Reply”), was shot down by a German night fighter whilst returning from a bombing raid on Hamburg. At just 20 years old, he represented the young British aircrew who gave their lives in the strategic bombing campaign against Nazi Germany.

Early Life and Family

Alfred Walter David Hover was born before 28 June 1922 in Ashford, Kent, England, registered in the Summer Quarter (East Ashford, Volume 2A, Page 1672) . He was the son of Alfred William Hover and Mabel Lettie Elizabeth Hover (née Norrington) of Oast Cottage, Little Court, Margate Street, Littlebourne, Bridge, Kent . He was baptised on 28 June 1922 at Hastingleigh, Kent, a rural parish in the Weald of Kent known for its hop gardens and oast houses .

The Hover family were rooted in the Kent countryside, where the distinctive conical oast houses—used for drying hops—dominated the landscape. Their home at Oast Cottage reflected this agricultural heritage. Alfred grew up in the interwar years amid economic uncertainty and gathering international tensions. No records indicate marriage or children; he remained single and devoted to his parents and family . The family connection to the village of Hastingleigh is preserved in a local memorial maintained by the parish .

Military Service

Alfred enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) and trained as an Air Gunner, one of the most dangerous roles in bomber operations . He achieved the rank of Sergeant (Service Number 1392470), recognised for his skill and reliability in this hazardous position . He was posted to No. 9 Squadron RAF, part of 5 Group Bomber Command .

No. 9 Squadron, with the motto “Per noctem volamus” (Through the night we fly), was one of the most celebrated and battle-hardened units of the RAF, having operated throughout the war across multiple theatres . By early 1943, the squadron was equipped with the Avro Lancaster Mk III, the iconic four-engine heavy bomber that would become synonymous with precision bombing and strategic raids against Nazi Germany .

The Lancaster required a crew of seven: pilot, flight engineer, navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, mid-upper gunner, and rear gunner. Sergeant Hover served as the mid-upper gunner, manning the dorsal turret between the fuselage wings, with two .303 Browning machine guns. This position offered a 180-degree field of fire above and to the sides of the aircraft, but exposed the gunner to the full force of enemy fire and the sub-zero temperatures of high-altitude flight .

By January 1943, the Lancaster force was engaged in the preliminary phases of the bombing campaign against German cities. No. 9 Squadron operated from RAF Waddington, a permanent station in Lincolnshire, which became the home of several elite Lancaster units .

The Final Mission: Hamburg, 30–31 January 1943

On the night of 30 January 1943, Sergeant Hover was part of the crew of Avro Lancaster III ED477, coded WS-O and nicknamed “Robbie’s Reply”, detailed for a bombing raid on Hamburg, Germany’s largest port and second-largest city . The operation was significant: 148 aircraft were dispatched—135 Lancasters, 7 Stirlings, and 6 Halifaxes from No. 1, 5, and 8 Groups . This was the first operational use of H2S radar by the RAF, a revolutionary airborne radar-bombing aid intended to mark targets with precision even in cloud cover [3].

The crew, drawn from three Allied nations, were:

Royal Australian Air Force:

  • Flight Sergeant J. F. Thomas – Pilot (Captain)
  • Flight Sergeant L. A. Morgan – Rear Gunner

Royal New Zealand Air Force:

  • Sergeant W. J. Veysey – Wireless Air Gunner

Royal Air Force:

  • Sergeant Alfred W. Hover – Mid-Upper Gunner
  • Sergeant S. F. McLean – Flight Engineer
  • Sergeant J. Murtagh – Navigator
  • Sergeant B. M. Swallow – Bomb Aimer

Lancaster ED477 took off from RAF Waddington at 23:49 hours on 30 January 1943, laden with a full bomb load and fuel for the long flight to Hamburg and back . Over the target, bombing proved scattered. Although H2S was a significant technical achievement, its performance that night was poor—Hamburg’s location near a coastline and prominent river should have made it ideal for the new radar, but bombing dispersed over a wide area . Only 315 tons of bombs were dropped in the Hamburg area, with local historians suggesting many fell in the River Elbe or surrounding marshes . Nevertheless, 119 fires were started (71 large), 58 people were killed, and 164 injured; a railway bridge was destroyed, disrupting Hamburg’s entire network for two days .

Circumstances of Death

As ED477 returned from Hamburg in the early hours of 31 January 1943, the Lancaster was hunted by German night fighters. The Luftwaffe had deployed Bf 110 and Ju 88 night fighters equipped with Lichtenstein radar to intercept the bomber stream . At approximately 03:24 hours, the aircraft was attacked and shot down by Oberleutnant Ernst Weiss of 1./NJG3 (Nachtjagdgeschwader 3 – Night Fighter Squadron 3) .

Eyewitness accounts from the ground are chilling: at 03:00 hours, a four-engine bomber was observed at approximately 1,000 feet, already burning in the air, approaching the village of Ristedt from the west, near Vechta, 15 km south-southwest of Bremen . Within minutes, the flaming aircraft crashed onto pastureland belonging to a farmer named Jakob on Ristedter Moor . No explosion was heard, suggesting the bomb load had been jettisoned before the final impact . All seven crew members were killed instantly .

Burial and Commemoration

Following the crash, the bodies of the seven airmen were initially recovered by German forces and buried in the Russian Prisoner of War cemetery at Vechta, Plot 1, Grave 114 . After the war, in a humanitarian gesture, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission exhumed and individually reinterred the fallen airmen at proper military cemeteries. Sergeant Alfred Walter David Hover’s body was transferred and reburied at Rheinberg War Cemetery, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, on 9 October 1947, in Plot 17, Row H, Grave 18 .

Rheinberg War Cemetery, situated in western Germany near the Dutch border, serves as the final resting place for 3,596 Commonwealth servicemen and women of the Second World War, many of them air force personnel killed on bombing operations over enemy territory . The CWGC inscription reads:

“1392470 SERGEANT ALFRED WALTER DAVID HOVER, AIR GUNNER, ROYAL AIR FORCE, 31ST JANUARY 1943, AGE 20. SON OF ALFRED WILLIAM AND MABEL LETTIE ELIZABETH HOVER, OF LITTLEBOURNE, KENT.”

He is also commemorated on Find a Grave – Rheinberg War Cemetery , where descendants and researchers can view and maintain his record. The village of Hastingleigh, his baptismal parish, honours his memory through a local war memorial .

Legacy

Sergeant Alfred Hover’s sacrifice underscores the phenomenal cost of the strategic bombing campaign. In January 1943, No. 9 Squadron RAF lost several Lancasters to enemy fighters and flak; the night-fighter threat grew exponentially as the Luftwaffe refined its defensive tactics . Ernst Weiss, Hover’s killer, would go on to claim 41 victories before being killed himself later in the war .

At 20 years old, Sergeant Hover had achieved the rank of air gunner in one of the most elite and dangerous branches of the RAF. His crew, a true Commonwealth force of Australian, New Zealand, and British personnel, exemplified the global sacrifice of the Allied air war. The young Kentish airman from Littlebourne never returned to his family’s Oast Cottage; instead, he rests among comrades in a German war cemetery, a permanent witness to the price of freedom.

As a 4th cousin to modern descendants, his genealogical connection preserves his memory within family records . Through the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, aviation historians, and local parish memorials, Sergeant Alfred Walter David Hover’s name endures—a reminder that “through the night” these young men flew, often to their last dawn.

(Word count: 1,285)

Sources: