One of the Few

Alcluith · Post by **Alcluith** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 2:52 pm

My grandfather William Davidson was the youngest of eight children.
Two of his brothers were professional soldiers killed in WWI, another had been gassed but survived. The remaining siblings were quite easy to follow with the exception of his sister Margaret.

With help from Talkingscot I was able to track down her marriage in Edinburgh. She married on 20th January 1919 in Edinburgh to Robert Guy Young a lieutenant in the RAF. Robert’s profession was listed as a Rubber Planter and his usual address was the Manse, Kuala Lumpur, Federated Malaya States. I tried to get information of them from Malaya without success

Verbal family history said that Margaret returned to Malaya where she had a son who enlisted in the air force and was killed in WWII.
The family had lost touch after the war and no-one knew what had happened to them.
I had been in touch with my Davidson relations in Canada, Andrew Davidson was one of the twins and Margaret’s older brother, He had also been keeping in touch up until the outbreak of war.
Gordon, Andrew’s son had sent me a couple of small photos of the Young family, it showed two small boys but nothing more of assistance.

so I spent the next couple of years searching for them. First off I posted on various websites to try to find out some more about them, without success.

Had they been capture by the Japanese. I contacted various POW organisations and the Red Cross, this drew a blank. Maybe the escaped to Australia so again I unsuccessfully searched for any trace.

Given the lack of success I decided to try another approach, find information on the son who was killed in WWII.
A search of CWGC site gave a list of Youngs killed in WWII but no-one with parent Robert and Margaret Young.
Maybe he was in the RAAF so I searched various Australian sites without success.
After three years searching for the elusive Young family I had concluded that this was another of my brick walls that I was unlikely to knock down.

Last year events would lead to a major breakthrough.
Like a lot of families it takes one of BMDs to bring the family together and in this instance it was the tragic death of a cousin that brought us all together. I was talking to my aunt and as always the conversation drifted into my passion for genealogy( the family historian as they call me).
I related my frustration at not been able to find her namesake Margaret and her family.
I said I was beginning to doubt if Margaret’s son was killed in WWII as I could not find any suitable candidates.
She said he definitely was killed in WWII in fact, she believed, it was during the Battle of Britain.

This piece of tantalising information and the fact that the Battle of Britain was such a short period of time rekindled my enthusiasm and I restarted my search.
I went to all the various WWII websites and gathered information on all the Youngs that took part in the Battle of Britain.
One by one I was able to eliminate them until I had one name P.O. Cecil Reginald Young of the 46 Squadron.
He was killed just after the Battle of Britain and there were no parents listed in the CWGC website.

Very little was written about Cecil in the main books considered to be “the bibles” of the Battle of Britain.
In the Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War he is not even included.
The Men of the Battle of Britain give this small paragraph on him.
He is buried in Thanet Cemetery Minster.

Still nothing to confirm that this was in fact the person I was looking for. With the knowledge of where Cecil was buried I sent to the church to see if they had any details.
They confirmed that indeed a pilot was buried there but their burial records showed a Charlie R Young not Cecil.
This did not help so I sent for his death certificate. That did not have his parents so again it was of little help.
I had by then contacted a great forum “The Battle of Britain Historical Society”, where Cecil is listed but no-one could help with more information.
I kept searching their forum without much success then on a separate topic I found a post from a Charlie Young in Australia who said his great uncle and namesake had been a fighter pilot killed in WWII.
I emailed this Charlie Young and sure enough he was Margaret Davidson’s great grandson.
I had at long last made contact with the family.

Charlie updated me on what had happened to Margaret and Robert Young during WWII (that is another story) and in fact they had two sons Cecil, who liked to be known as Charlie (Bonny Prince) and Robert( Rob Roy) as Cecil called him (the two little boys in the picture from Canada).
Charlie was just starting to try to get information about his great uncle and had found like me that there was very little in the public domain.

The resulting research and co-operation has given us a much clearer picture of his short time in the RAF and that he rightly deserved the title of "One of the Few".
Anyone interested in reading his story should go to http://battleofbritain.net/bobhsoc/index.html and click on his name in the link "The airman's stories".

This summer I was able to visit his grave and the site where he crashed. It was a humbling experience in this day and age to find a twenty year old that had done so much in such a short space of time in maintaining the safety of our shores.
He was not unique but like many thousands who at a very young age gave their lives allowing us all to live ours in relative freedom.

regards

Drew Davidson

Post by **joette** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 3:25 pm

Oh Drew I can hardly type for the tears in my eyes.Straight out of the story books of the forties.

You must be very proud to have found & claimed such a brave young man as your relative.
My Mother's cousin was widowed after a few short weeks of marriage when her husband became "one of the few".

What was the tale of the parents experience?
My Aunt lived through the War out in Malaysia too.

Rosie-K · Post by **Rosie-K** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:12 pm

I must thank you for sharing that with us, it was very moving and I am so glad you got the answers you were looking for.

JustJean · Post by **JustJean** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 5:18 pm

Hi Drew

One of the finest success stories I've read. The perserverance on your part is just as deserving of a medal as your heroic ancestor. Gives me hope that someday all my own puzzle pieces will fit!

Best wishes
Jean

Lorna Allison · Post by **Lorna Allison** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:02 pm

Thank you so much Drew. I have just read Charlie's story. What a great tribute to a brave young man.

I noticed that there was a link to "Surviving Aircrew" and couldn't believe my luck. There is a Squadron Leader Graham Leggett of 615 Squadron. I shall need to do some digging, but I am pretty sure that he is the young chap who "purloined" my Aunt's toy pink rabbit, kept from childhood, stuck a bit of wire inside its ear so that it stuck out at a very cheeky angle and kept it as his mascot until the end of the war, when he returned it to her. I was always told as a child that the pink rabbit had flown sorties over Berlin and it now sits on my own bed, treasured and cheeky looking as ever!

My Aunt was a young woman employed as lady cook at Roslyn Leigh, near Edinburgh where injured soldiers/airmen (?) came to be treated. She seemed to cook for very big numbers there. Don't know what it is now. Dr Leggett Sr and Dr Garry were the medical men in charge.

Thank you again

Lorna

Lorna

Post by **emanday** » Fri Sep 28, 2007 10:09 pm

Hi Drew,

How wonderful that your perseverance has finally won out. I read your story with tears in my eyes and then read his story on the link you gave us.

A young man to be proud of!

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Sat Sep 29, 2007 10:49 am

What another fantastic story, again it just shows what can be found with persistence and good detective work.

The facts are there to be found somewhere.

You now have to see if you can go to the squadron reunions, if these are still held.

Last weekend I went to the 234 Squadron 90th Anniversary Reunion at RAF Cranwell, ( see Success Story for another pilot ), and I see the well known pilot Bob Doe of 234 Squadron is mentioned on your relatives story page. He was mentioned in the speeches at the dinner.

I met two elderly spitfire pilots who knew and flew with my uncle Russell, one of them had Russell as his flying instructor, and so I was able to hear hair-raising stories direct from them about him. I do not wish to hijack your thread so will step back off now.

I greatly admired the presentation on the pages on your relative on the website link you gave, this is absolutely brilliant and spurs me on to harness such limited it skills as I have and, perhaps, do something similar.

Puffin

Alcluith · Post by **Alcluith** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:19 am

Puffin

All you need do is gather the facts. Unfortuneatlyas he did not take part in the BOB then you cannot have it recorded in the BOB website.

You must preserve his story and if you want I can format your information up into a webpage for everyone to see.

I have been toying with the idea of a "Family at War" website where anyone can have the stories of their loved ones who took part in the two "World Wars" but do not have anywhere else to put their stories if the do not have their own website.

The BOB tends to be regarded as happening down south but in fact many were lost here in Scotland and one of my current projects is to try to gather all who were killed here in Scotland and try to compile some background information if it has not already been done.

Drew Davidson
Alcluith

puffin · Post by **puffin** » Mon Oct 01, 2007 8:57 pm

Drew,

Many thanks for your kind offer for help on formatting the information up into a webpage.

There is certainly plenty of material.

I have some of it being prepared into a Powerpoint presentation, at present just(!) over 100 images. It is my first attempt at such, and it is in draft readiness for a talk I am giving next April on the subject.

Perhaps you could email me off this forum for how you might start, and also where would such a webpage be hosted?

Best wishes

Puffin

Chris Paton · Post by **Chris Paton** » Tue Oct 02, 2007 10:22 am

Hi Drew, what an excellent story!

I've made a couple of films in the last ten years about the Battle of Britain for C4 and the BBC, and had the great pleasure to meet many of the pilots, who are sadly all passing away. Only last week I discovered that Iain Hutchison, a Scottish pilot I filmed in Dorset, died earlier this year which was particularly sad as he was such a gent. On my desk in front of me is a small wooden mushroom, carved on a lathe in the garden shed of another B of B pilot, Eric Poole, which he did for me when I visited him a few years back. Sadly, Eric has also recently passed away. The Few were a remarkable bunch of young lads, caught up in remarkable circumstances with they dealt wqith with remarkable resilience, and I have been absolutely fascinated by them for years, so thank you for sharing that!

I've had a look at my own copy of Kenneth G. Wynn's "Men of the Battle of Britain", and the entry is quite a bit longer than the one line on his burial that you have quoted. It may be that you have the 1st edition, so here it is in full:

CECIL REGINALD YOUNG

42372 PO Pilot British 615, 607 and 46 Squadron

Joined the RAF on a short service commission in May 1939. Young completed his training and arrived at 11 Group Pool, St Athan on February 1 1940. He was posted away on the 3rd to make room for twelve Finnish pilots, due to arrive for Hurrican training.

He was with 615 Squadron at Kenley in early June 1940. he claimed a He 111 destroyed onm August 16 and a Do 17 on the 18th.

Young moved to 607 Squadron at Tangmere on September 13 and then to 46 Squadron at Stapleford on October 16. He was killed on December 5 1940, crashing at Daughton House, near Writham, Kent, in Hurricane V 7617.

He is buried in Thanet Cemetery, Minster.

PO 22.7.39 PO 1.2.40

This is taken from the 2nd edition published in 1999 by CCB Associates.

Just looked at the website and it is an excellent piece of research!

Kind regards,

Chris