John Alwyn Fisher – Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 48 Squadron

Sergeant John Alwyn Fisher – Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 48 Squadron

Early Life and Family Background

John Alwyn Fisher 

John Alwyn Fisher was born in 1921 in Morriston, the youngest child of Robert Fisher and Margaret Morgan, who had married in Swansea in 1907. He grew up in a family rooted in the industrial life of the lower Swansea Valley, where generations of men worked in the metal industries that dominated the region.

The Family in the 1921 Census

1921 Census

The 1921 Census records the Fisher family living at 24 Upland Terrace, Morriston. Robert, aged thirty‑seven, was employed as a Spelter Man Furnace Foreman, a skilled and demanding role within the zinc works. His wife Maggie, aged thirty‑five, undertook household duties. Their children — Mattie May, aged twelve; Brinley James, aged nine; Leslie, aged six; and John Alwyn, then nine months old — were all recorded in the household, the older three attending school. The census captures the family at a moment of stability, with John still an infant.

The Family in the 1939 Register

1939 Register

By the outbreak of the Second World War, the family had moved to 44 Morfydd Street, Swansea. Robert continued to work as a Spelter Furnace Foreman, while Margaret maintained the home. John, now eighteen, was employed as a Warehouse Man. Also present in the household was Margaret Amway Powell, a Store Manageress, suggesting the family may have taken in a lodger during the early wartime years.

Lockheed Hudson VI

Service with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

John enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, serving with No. 48 Squadron, a Coastal Command unit operating from Gibraltar. By 1943 the squadron was flying Lockheed Hudson VI aircraft on maritime patrols, anti‑submarine operations, and convoy escort duties across the western Mediterranean and approaches to the Atlantic — a region of intense strategic importance.

John Alwyn Fisher 
Gibraltar Memorial credit - findagrave

Loss at Gibraltar: 11 May 1943

On 11 May 1943, Sergeant Fisher was aboard a Hudson VI when the aircraft exploded in the air and crashed off Gibraltar. The cause of the explosion was never conclusively determined, and the aircraft was lost with all on board. The incident occurred during a period of heavy operational activity, as Allied forces sought to secure the Mediterranean following the North African campaign.

Commemoration

With no known grave, Sergeant John Alwyn Fisher is commemorated on the Gibraltar Memorial, which honours airmen of the Commonwealth who lost their lives in the region and have no known resting place. His name stands among those who served far from home in the hazardous maritime air operations of the Second World War.