Edward Alan Vagg

 

Edward Alan Vagg 
St. Pauls 

The first Royal Air Force burials at St. Pauls was in May 1940.

15^th May 1940, Pilot Officer Edward Alan Vagg was killed in a flying accident.  Edward served with the 83 Squadron, Royal Air Force.  Aged 28 years, Edward, was the son of George and Annie Vagg.

83 Squadron was founded in January 1917, at Montrose although it trained at RAF Spitalgate, Lincolnshire, and RAF Wyton, Cambridgeshire.  Initially, its role during the First World War was as a night bomber squadron, with the squadron moving to France in March 1918, to attack the German troops at the time of the German Spring Offensive. By December 1919, the squadron was disbanded.

In August 1936, the squadron was reformed at RAF Turnhouse, Edinburgh, equipped with Hawker Hinds. In March 1938, the squadron joined No. 5 Group at RAF Scampton, Lincolnshire, by the October of that year, the squadron was equipped with Handley Page Hampdens. 

On the outbreak of the Second World War, the squadron went into action on the first day of the war, carrying out a sweep of the North Sea, looking for German warships. The squadron continued with these ‘precision raids’ against the German naval and coastal targets, however, these daylight raids became more costly.  Switching to night operations, the squadron flew against the concentrations of invasion shipping in the Channel Ports, during the late summer and autumn of 1940.

It was during this period that Edward was killed.

1911 Census

Edward Alan Vagg was born in 1912.  Edward’s parents, Edwin George Vagg and Beatrice Anne Harris were married in 1910, the following year, at the time of the 1911 Census, they were residing at 91A Woodfield Street, Morriston, the home of Edward and Annie Harris, Beatrice’s parents.

Edwin, 28, was employed as a Teacher and Beatrice, 21, was assisting in her father’s business of a Fishmonger and Fruiterer. By this time, they had one son, Leonard, who was born that year.

1921 Census

A decade later, by the time of the 1921 Census, the family was residing at 121 Walter Road.  Edwin now 39, was a teacher working at the Swansea Education Boys School.  Beatrice, 31, was looking after the family of “3” children, Beryl, 9; Edward Alan, 7, and David M., 1.  There isn’t a reference to the eldest son, Leonard.  Also present is a servant, Anne May Phillips, aged 16.

Local newspapers of the Liverpool and Cheshire area refer to Edward during August 1938, when he gave evidence to an inquest of two pilots who were killed at Cheshire.

Hampton I

South Wales Daily Post 

14^th May 1940, taking off from Scampton, at 22.29, for Ruhr, Pilot Officer Edward along with Flying Officer Neville Johnson; Leading Aircraftman John George Pickard, and Sergeant Douglas Wolstenholme in Hampton I.  The following morning, 02.10, on its return the aircraft circled sharply, sped up, and dived into the ground.  The aircraft exploded after crashing near Louth, Lincolnshire.