52 Ancestors 2026 Week 40 - A Moment of Courage
The Empty Chairs: Five Airmen in My Tree On the day of writing this the 2026 Poppy Appeal has been launched, it seems only fitting to pause and remember some of my family's fallen. Not just a moment of courage but as so many others, showing great courage day after day. This post reflects on the lives of five men in my family tree who died while serving with the RAF during the Second World War. They were not the only sacrifices made by this extended family. I also remember the thirty-two men connected to my tree who lost their lives in the trenches of the First World War, Thomas Taylor who was killed in Belgium in 1940 while serving with the Sussex Regiment, and Ralph John Clime, who died in Vietnam in 1969 at the age of just twenty-one, an age shared by far too many of those whose lives were cut short by war. Today, I reflect on five young airmen whose stories deserve to be remembered. Each story is different, yet together they tell a larger story about sacrifice, duty and unrealis...
