Tribute paid to brave RAF sergeant buried in Lowestoft cemetery

Jack waller( sitting down) with Tommy Gibbs (Image: Archant)

But the tragic death of a young airman was remembered this week in Lowestoft Cemetery.

Sgt Maurice 'Jack' Waller, from Oulton, was killed when an RAF Havoc nightfighter – in which he was as observer – was shot down over the North Sea off the Essex coast on June 3, 1942.

The Havoc's pilot, his close friend Flt Sgt Tommy Gibbs, escaped with his life after the plane was hit in what is believed to have been 'a friendly fire' incident and ditched into the sea.

However, due to his injuries, he was unable to attend the funeral at the cemetery and never visited his grave.

Knowing how sad her father was at being unable to attend the service, Mr Gibbs' daughter Paula Masters travelled up to Lowestoft from her home in Hertfordshire on Wednesday to visit the grave to pay tribute to his friend.

After laying a cross and two photographs of the pair beside the headstone, she said: 'There you are dad; I did it.'

Mrs Masters, 61, said she had been inspired to act after seeing her father's medals and wartime log when she began going through his possessions following his death at the age of 90 in 2011

Also among his treasured items were photographs of Sgt Waller, she said, and seeing these convinced her it was time to pay final respects to her father's friend in 85 Squadron.

Mrs Masters, a retired English teacher from Radlett, said: 'I was desperately trying not to cry. I think my father would have been pleased I came here today. They were very close and socialised together all the time. Being in a nightfighter was a tough job and they would have shared a strong bond.'

Although no official inquiry took place into the how the Havoc was shot down at 12,500ft, it is strongly believed that it was hit by another RAF nightfighter in what appears to have been a tragic error.

Flt Sgt Gibbs managed to escape the stricken Havoc by standing in the cockpit and then rolling down the fuselage. After baling out into the North Sea five miles from Foulness Point, he was picked up three hours later from a dinghy by a search and rescue Walrus plane. He suffered cuts and bruises to his head.

The body of Sgt Waller, who lived at The Hall in Gorleston Road and was member of the RAF's volunteer reserve force, was picked up from the sea near the mouth of the River Crouch five hours after the Havoc was shot down.

At his funeral in Lowestoft Cemetery, his coffin was draped in a Union Jack and carried by four RAF pall-bearers. He is buried in the same plot as his parents, Stanley and Alice, and sister Phyllis, who died aged 74 in 1990.

An inscription on his gravestone says: 'Always thoughtful, always kind, a beautiful memory left behind.'

Flt Sgt Gibbs returned to the war to fly Mosquitos and after the conflict he became a commercial airline pilot.

85 Squadron, which was based at RAF Hunsdon in Hertfordshire, a few miles north of Harlow, was the only Royal Air Force unit to operate Havocs in the nightfighter role between 1941 and 1942.