Second World War - Lynsted Memorial Project
Edmond Henry JEFFREYS (of Doddington)
b. 1921 Flight Lieutenant, Service Number 116717 |
Edmund was the younger of the two sons of Captain Robin Edmund Jeffreys RN and Marjorie Ellenwood Jeffreys of Great Chesterford, Essex.
Edmund worked at the British Power Boat Company and had wanted to join the Navy. He was bitterly disappointed to be turned down.
He enlisted in the RAFVR in Oxford in November 1940 and was commissioned as a Flying Officer in 1942. His actions in January 1943 while on a successful reconnaissance, was rewarded with a Distinguished Flying Cross. Rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant, he transferred to a Mosquito squadron in the Anti-shipping unit of Coastal Command.
On Saturday 10 June 1944, Edmund was piloting Mosquito FBVI, HR117 from his base at RAF Portreath, on a U-Boat Patrol.
Of the coast of the island of Ushant off Northern France, he and three other Mosquitoes attacked U-821 causing enough damage for the crew to abandon ship. The U-boat was later sunk by Liberator V. A motor-launch picked up the survivors of U-821 and the crew fired on Edmund's plane causing it to crash into the water. The motor launch was then destroyed by another Mosquito killing all but one of the 51 German submariners on board.
Edmund was lost along with his navigator, Flying Officer Dudley Burden.
| The Times announcing his death |
| "The last months of his life were clouded by the death in action of his elder brother, for love of family ranked with him even higher than love of nature. That cloud has been lifted from him; and England lacks another gallant fighter pilot." |
Edmund's body was not recovered and he is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial and on a memorial plaque in Doddington church.
The Times, 20th July 1944 recorded: "JEFFREYS. - A service in memory of FLIGHT LIEUTENANT E.H. JEFFREYS, D.F.C., R.A.F., will be held in the CHapel of the Royal Hospital, Chelsea, on Saturday, July 22 at 2.45p.m."
