YEARS IN FOCUS

LOCAL NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE 1940s

PONTEFRACT IN 1946

11th JANUARY 1946
PRESUMED DEAD

Mr. and Mrs G.W. Hill.of 5 Mill Hill, Pontefract, have been informed by the Air Ministry that their son, Flight Lieutenant G.W. Hill, who has been missing since May 5th 1945, must now be presumed to have lost his life in action on that date, three days before V.E. Day.

Flt Lieutenant Hill, who was 24, joined the R.A.F. in June 1941, and was commissioned in Calgary, Canada, in November 1942. On his return to Britain he was posted to Coastal Command, in which he piloted Beaufighter, Halifax and Liberator aircraft. He rejoined his original squadron in Scotland, as captain of a Liberator crew, and was reported missing after one of the biggest actions - and the last action - of Coastal Command before V.E. Day.

Flight Lieutenant Hill was educated at the King's School, Pontefract, and was a keen sportsman, and a particularly good swimmer.

[ 1946 Index ]

Years in Focus is researched by Maurice Haigh and reproduced
with the kind permission of the Pontefract and Castleford Express.