LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Kenneth Edgar FOXCROFT
Service No: 427313
Born: Leeds England, 8 February 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 June 1942 (at Perth WA)
Unit: No. 97 Squadron (RAF), RAF Bourn, Cambridgeshire
Died: Air Operations: Long Distance Raids (No. 97 Squadron Lancaster aircraft JB117), near Bourn, 17 December 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Cambridge City Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Edgar and Dorothy May Foxcroft, of West Perth, Western Australia, husband of Eleanor Katherine Grace Foxcroft, of Mt. Lawley Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Perth WA
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Lancaster JB117 took off from Bourn at 1650 hours on the night of 16/17th December 1943 to bomb Berlin. On return from the mission the aircraft was diverted to another aerodrome not far from Bourn because of bad weather. When coming in to land, JB117 crashed at 0101 hours just over one mile north east of Graveley airfield, Huntingdonshire not far from the Cambridgeshire village of Papworth St Agnes. All the crew members were killed. Eight aircraft from the squadron were lost on this mission.
The crew members of JB 117 were:
Sergeant Charles William Collishaw (1807326) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Kenneth Edgar Foxcroft (427313) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Clifford Lionel Hope (R/173734) (RCAF) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Douglas Raymond Irvine (R/165031) (RCAF) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Samuel Joseph Peek (658210) (RAF) (Navigator)
Sergeant Sidney George Parrott (1333567) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Ian MacDonald Scott (417123) (Pilot)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/14/144