Leonard George Dicks – Royal Air Force, 9 Squadron
Aircraftman 2nd Class Leonard George Dicks – Royal Air Force, 9 Squadron
Leonard George Dicks, born in 1920 in Swansea, was the son of Charles Dicks and Gwendoline Williams, married in 1917. Leonard George Dicks 1921 Census
The 1921 Census places the family at 1 Field Street, Landore, where Charles worked as a Motor Driver & Warehouseman for Olsel & Knutsen, Ship Chandlers, Pier Street. Their children were Charles Kenneth, aged 3, and Leonard George, aged 7 months.
Leonard later enlisted in the Royal Air Force, serving with 9 Squadron as an Aircraftman 2nd Class, based at RAF Honington, Suffolk. At the outbreak of the Second World War, 9 Squadron flew Vickers Wellington bombers during the earliest phase of Bomber Command operations.
The South Wales Daily Post Reports His Death
The South Wales Daily Post carried the news of Leonard’s death, announcing that official intimation had been received by his parents in Swansea. The paper recorded that Leonard had been in the RAF for about eighteen months, and that before enlistment he had been employed in Rutland Street. It added a poignant detail: Leonard “would have been nineteen on Wednesday”, underscoring the youth of Swansea’s first wartime air casualty.
Wellington I
The Accident
On 30 October 1939, Leonard was killed while flying during a night‑time formation exercise. The Wellington I in which he was flying collided with Wellington L4288, also of 9 Squadron, over Sapiston, near RAF Honington. Early‑war training flights were often hazardous, carried out in darkness with inexperienced crews and limited navigational aids.
Leonard George Dicks
Cwmgelli Cemetery, Swansea
credit - findagrave
Burial at Cwmgelli Cemetery
Cwmgelli Cemetery, Swansea
credit - findagrave
The South Wales Daily Post announced that Leonard’s funeral would take place at Cwmgelli Cemetery, where he became the first Second World War burial at the site. His grave marks the beginning of a new chapter in the cemetery’s wartime story, linking the losses of 1914–1918 with those of the conflict that followed.
Comments
Post a Comment