8:21am Tuesday 2nd February 2010
By Emma Clayton
For several years after their sons were killed in active service, three mothers united in grief wrote letters of support to each other. Nearly 70 years later, the letters have found their way to the Bradford family of one of the dead airmen – from a corner of Europe where he lost his life.
Watching famous faces tracing their roots on BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are?, you wonder how they can shed tears for long-dead relatives they never met.
But reading letters sent by Elsie Looker, mother of Flying Officer Peter Looker who was killed, aged 22, when his bomber crashed in Belgium during the Second World War, I knew how they felt.
“Not a thing has been found of Peter and we are told we must now presume him killed,” wrote Elsie. “I can’t believe he is dead. Life seems so different now, nothing seems real anymore.
“We’re very proud of them, aren’t we? Even if life holds so very little. I used to wish I was younger, but I don’t now. When I have a bad day I go to bed and say, ‘God, don’t let me wake up again’.”
A newspaper In Memoriam read: ‘Proud and happy memories of much-loved only child Peter, who did not return from air operations June 25-26, 1942. Grateful remembrances of ‘Bill’ and ‘Tich’ who died with him. Mother and Dad.’ Elsie wasn’t the only mother of a serviceman to suffer such loss, but her letters hold particular poignancy for me, as I recently discovered she is my great-great aunt. Staring at an old photograph of her son, Peter, in his RAF uniform, I saw my brother in his face.
The first I knew of Peter was when a letter from Belgium landed at my parents’ Idle home. It was from Walter Lindekens, of Aartselaar near Antwerp, who is researching a Bristol Blenheim MK IV crash near Aartselaar in June, 1942.
The aircraft, T2254, belonged to 13 Squadron RAF, crewed by Peter, Flight Sergeant William O’Neill and Sergeant Gordon Cox. All three were killed.
Walter has contacted relatives of O’Neill and Cox, but finding Looker’s family proved more difficult – until he traced my mother through online research.
It turns out she is Peter’s second cousin. His mother, Elsie, had a brother whose son was my grandfather, Henry. He died before I was born; I have looked at photos of him and wondered about him and his family. Unlike Peter, he survived wartime service.
Peter took part in the third ‘1,000 Bomber Raid’, targeting Bremen, Germany. His aircraft was one of two that failed to return from nine bombers despatched by his squadron. The Blenheim fell victim to German anti-aircraft artillery.
Walter’s interest started with reading a book on the Blenheim. A visit to the aircrew’s war graves in Antwerp made a lasting impression, and he went on to find out all he possibly could about the T2254 and its unfortunate crew.
My family has provided Walter with some information but, with Peter’s mother the youngest of eight, there may be others who can help. To complete his research, Walter needs service records and Peter’s log book.
“After his death, the Air Ministry would have sent his log book to his parents,” says Walter. “Peter was a much-loved son and Elsie would have held on to this and other related material until her death in 1967. I’m hoping it was passed on to the family after she died.”
Walter obtained a transcript of details from Peter’s service record from the RAF. “The units he served in included Peterborough and Hullavington. Oddly, Peter had no experience on twin-engined aircraft when he joined No 42 Operational Training Unit (OTU) in Andover, so he must have ‘converted’ on to the twin-engined Blenheim at OTU level,” says Walter.
“Quite a few questions remain; perhaps Peter was initially selected for fighter training and during his training the powers-that-be decided he was better-suited for bombers. His logbook would reveal details.”
Walter has traced the man formerly in charge of maintaining the Blenheim, Eric Aldred, now 88. “Even now, more than 65 years after the crash, he gets emotional when we talk about those three boys. War is such a waste,” says Walter.
His research has spanned the world. After tracing descendants of Bill O’Neill in New Zealand, he discovered letters between the airmen’s mothers, which started during the war and continued for years afterwards.
“It’s amazing that they kept in touch. Elsie’s first letter, dated 1943, made it all the way to New Zealand (where Bill’s mother lived) in the midst of war,” he says. “With the In Memoriams, I found it so moving that in Elsie’s grief for her only son she also gave thought to Bill and ‘Tich’, Peter’s crewmates.”
“This research project has become very important to me; it would mean a lot to find out more about Peter Looker. The story of these airmen deserves to be told,” says Walter.
Anyone with information about Flying Officer Peter Looker, or the Blenheim crash, should contact Walter at walter.lindekens AT telenet.be, or by post at Adriaan Sanderslei 37, B-2630 Aartselaar, Belgium.
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