Woman born on day RAF uncle died unveils memorial

A woman who was born on the day her RAF pilot uncle was killed during World War Two has unveiled a memorial to him more than 80 years later.

Linda McLean, 83, from Horsham in West Sussex, travelled to the village of Neerkant in the Netherlands to honour Flight Sergeant Arthur Burgess, who died when his bomber was shot down in June 1943.

Arthur was 23 when he was killed on 22 June 1943, the same day his twin sister Dorothy gave birth to Linda.

Linda joined relatives of the crew, RAF representatives and members of the local community at a ceremony unveiling a permanent memorial to Arthur and the four crewmen who died alongside him.

"I actually don't like to travel anymore, but I am glad I came," Linda said.

"It is so beautiful and overwhelming, and now I also know who my uncle's fellow crew members were."

The ceremony, held on 21 June, brought together 22 relatives of the crew and included music, poems written by local schoolchildren and the laying of wreaths.

Arthur served with No. 166 Squadron of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was flying a Vickers Wellington bomber when it was shot down near Neerkant.

Alongside Arthur were navigator George Roland Wright, 35, rear gunner Eric Jeffs, 21, wireless operator James Karl Somers, 29, and bomb aimer William Francis Payne, 23.

Four of them were buried at Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen, but William's remains were never recovered.

The memorial project was led by Dutch researcher Jürgen Beekers, who has been researching soldiers buried in the cemetery and spent years investigating the crash and tracing the stories of the crew members.

Beekers and a team of military enthusiasts worked with Fraser & Fraser, the London probate research company behind the TV programme Heir Hunters, to track Arthur's relatives down in the UK.

Case manager Andy Loakes, who helped to piece together Arthur's family tree, said: "These are not just names on records. They are people, and they have families who still carry them."

The research uncovered details of Arthur's service that his family had not previously known.

Linda's daughter, Kirsty Shurety, said: "I had not realised that he was a pilot. I'm questioning everything I thought I knew, but it made him real. He wasn't just someone who lived two generations ago."

The memorial includes five stainless steel panels bearing the names and images of each member of the crew.

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