Percival Alfred (Alf) Dowding Lawrence

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from Pete Colley, Curator, Wickenby Museum. Additional information supplied by Marcel Bird whose father, Kenneth Bird, was Alf's best friend and Jane Page, Alf's cousin once-removed.

Remembering Percival Alfred Dowing Lawrence, Sgt, air gunner, aged 20, son of Percival Henry and Evalina Annie Lawrence, of Great Bedwyn, Wiltshire. He was killed on his 11th mission - airborne 22:22 on 22 Jun 1944 from Wickenby to bomb rail facilities in Reims. His aircraft crashed at Belloy, Oise, a village set in wooded countryside 6 km SE of Tricot.

My name is Marcel Bird and my father, Kenneth Bird, was Alf’s best friend. That friendship started in infant class until Alf passed away. They corresponded with each other during the war, Alf being in the Air Force and Ken being in the Navy. Ken learnt that Alf was missing when he was aboard the HMS Albatross in Seine Bay, after D-Day, later learning that he had been killed. The last time he saw Alf was at Great Bedwyn train station in February 1944. My father, who was on his way back after leave, was waving out of the train window and Alf was running up the platform to wave goodbye to him.

Percival Alfred Dowding Lawrence, known as Alf, was born on the 15th May 1924, the eldest son Percival Lawrence and his wife Evelina, nee Dowding. He had one brother, Leslie.
Alf grew up in the Wiltshire village of Great Bedwyn, living at first up Forest Hill and later they moved to Railway Terrace as his father worked for Great Western Railway. Alf attended the village school, remaining there until he passed the 11 plus exam for a place at Marlborough Grammar School. Alf, with other pupils, travelled 7 miles to Marlborough to school each day until he left at age16.

Alf had a great sense of humour and when he got excited, he would rub his hands together and almost double over with laughter. He was a great mimic and liked to tease, in a nice way. Alf and his brother, Les had a very happy childhood.

After leaving school, Alf started working at the local village bakery. He helped in the bakehouse in the morning, and afternoons he delivered bread locally on the bicycle with a big basket on the front. He didn’t intend to become a baker though, because he wanted to join the Royal Air Force when he was old enough. Therefore, he enlisted in the Spring of 1942, when he was almost 18 years old.

His RAF number was 14152811 and the first posting for Gunner Lawrence was 28 Battery, Capel, 4th Training Regiment, Folkestone Kent. He was stationed at various places, all over the UK, including, Warrington in 1943, Leamington Spa, Bridlington and Llanelly in 1943 and Gainsborough in 1944. He then became part of a 7-man bomber crew who trained together at RAF Lindholme before transferring to RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire.

Their first official mission together was on Fri 2 June 1944, when Alf had just turned 20, and they continued to fly in support of D-Day operations until their 11th mission on the 22nd June 1944 on a night raid. Alf was mid-upper gunner in Lancaster Bomber LM102 and they were on their way to bomb the marshalling yards at Reims. They were shot down either on their way to, or on their way back, from Reims and the Lancaster crashed in a field on the outskirts of the village of Belloy in Picardy in northern France. Alf and the rest of the crew lost their lives here and they are interred in Belloy churchyard.

Alf’s death caused much distress to his family and friends in the village where he grew up. A memorial service was held for him at St Mary’s Church in Great Bedwyn. This was the church where his family regularly worshipped and he had been a choir boy there for many years. It wasn’t generally known that Alf had bought a Free Will Offering, to help with the upkeep of the church, when he first became a wage earner.

Later, Mr & Mrs Lawrence visited the village of Belloy and made contact with the mayor and his wife. The morning after the crash, the mayor and his daughter Lucie, who was aged 17 at that time, visited the field to see the remains of the Lancaster. The village took care of the burial, and the mayor had contact with the Lawrence family until Mr and Mrs Lawrence passed away. Contact was lost for a few years until about 1980, when I went out there with a Belgian friend and reconnected with the village and the mayor. I took members of the Lawrence family to the village over the years to ceremonies which were held every five years to commemorate the crash and the crew of seven whose lives were lost. The villagers have always been very respectful to the families of the crew when they visit. They have always tried to make and maintain contact with the crew’s relatives and friends for as long as possible. A relative of Alf and his family is Jane Page who lives in Hampshire; her mother was a cousin to Alf and she always spoke fondly of him. Jane and her husband Steve have also been visiting Belloy over the past few years for the commemorations.

In recent years I have continued to travel to Belloy for these ceremonies and in June 2024 fragments of the Lancaster Bomber were handed over by Lucie to Jane. She then returned them to the museum at RAF Wickenby that September for another ceremony, when a tree was planted in honour of the crew. Family and friends of the crew and representatives from Belloy attended the ceremony, which was very moving. In turn, a plaque from the family and friends of the crew was unveiled in Belloy in May 2025 to recognise the many years of care and friendship shown to them by the people of the village.