Gordon Sproat was my father's best friend at school – they attended the Birkenhead Institute from the age of 11 years. He was the second child of Henry Sproat (1896-1976) and Druscilla Peel Middleton (1896-1972) and was born in Newcastle upon Tyne on 17 Dec 1922, which coincidentally was also Dad's date of birth. In about 1925, the family moved to Birkenhead on the Wirral in Cheshire. He had two sisters: Audrey Isabella Sproat (1918-1999), who married George E. Eastaugh in 1940, and Mavis Sproat (1926-2001), who married Colin Boston (another Birkenhead Institute pupil) in 1948. A younger brother, Henry, died within a few weeks of birth ~1925.
 Best Friends: Gordon Sproat (Left) and my Dad, David Griffith (~1942) when both home on leave | Dad and Gordon both wanted to join the Royal Air Force as pilots in World War II. Gordon got his wish and it cost him his life. Although Dad passed the 3 days of exams to be able to train to be a pilot, he was devastated that his colour blindness meant he was unfit to be a Pilot, Observer, or Wireless Operator/Air Gunner (he still has the report of the medical findings and rejection in his box of war photos and memorabilia). But to this day, Dad considers his colour blindness as being a blessing in disguise, as so many young pilots lost their lives within a few months of enlisting. In fact, half of Gordon's and Dad's classmates at Birkenhead Institute lost their lives in WWII when only ~18-22 years old. |
Gordon Sproat did his training in an air station in the south of England and also in South Africa early in 1942. On the trip back from South Africa, their boat was torpedoed and Gord was adrift for 14 days. When found, he was covered with sores from being in the seawater for so long. He was a Pilot in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 102 Squadron, Service Number 1219801 with the rank of Sergeant. "C" Flight on Plane W was shot down over Jemappes, Belgium at 04:10 hours on 28 August 1943, after a bombing raid on Nuremberg, Bavaria, Germany. Of the 7 crew members (see photo below), only Reginald Horten, one of the Air Gunners (3rd from the left in the photo), survived. The others who died with Gordon (from left to right in the photo) were:
- Leonard Rees ("Len"), 23 years, Sergeant, Service # 1316649, Flight Engineer – son of Sydney and Elizabeth Jane Rees of Tumble, Carmarthenshire (see Here)
- Dennis William Firth ("Bill"), 22 years, Sergeant, Service # 1330260, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner – son of Willie and Emily Julia Firth of Sudbury Hill, Middlesex (see Here)
- Charles Frederick Painter ("Fred"), Sergeant, Service # 1314628, Air Bomber – no other information available (see Here)
- Norman Richard Gauntlett ("Norm"), 22 years, Sergeant, Service # 1316475, Air Gunner – son of Albert Edward and Ellen Rosina Gauntlett of North End, Portsmouth (see Here)
- Frank Hustler Gould, 29 years, Sergeant, Service # 645547, Navigator – son of Edward and Marion Gould of Frizinghall, Bradford, Yorkshire (see Here)
Crew of "C" Flight, No. 102 Squadron, RAF (1943). L to R: Gordon Sproat (Pilot), Len Rees, Reginald Horten, Bill Firth, Fred Painter, Norm Gauntlett, Frank Gould. Plane shot down over Jemappes, Belgium, 28th August 1943.
"Mother Sproat" wrote a letter to Dad dated 28 Sep 1943 (about a month after Gordon was missing in action), while he was away serving in the Army (see below). In this, she indicated that she and her husband had received a letter from her son's Commanding Officer. Apparently the crew had been briefed about going to Nuremberg on the night of 27 Aug 1943, but nothing more had been heard from them – no distress signal had been received and it was thought they must have bailed out, hoping to be picked up in the English Channel. In the letter she wrote "How I long for the two of you to play the Gramophone again & you can both play it as loud as you like if only you will come home" and also "I can't eat or sleep for wondering where my bonny lad is, but I know he is a good pilot and will & must come home". She subsequently learned of her son's fate. He was only 20 years old when he died and was the youngest of those on Plane "W" when it was shot down.
Letter from Mrs. Sproat to Dad, 28th September 1943
Double-click to enlarge, or on iPad, enlarge by tapping once or by spreading fingers
Double-click to enlarge, or on iPad, enlarge by tapping once or by spreading fingers
 Page 1 |  Page 2 |  Page 3 (even though it says 4!) |
 Grave of Gordon Sproat (1922-1943), Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium. Copyright © The War Graves Photographic Project (used with permission) | Gordon is buried adjacent to the others who died with him at Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium (see Here and image of commemoration below), which is located 2 miles south of Leuven and 20 miles from Brussels. The grave references of the 6 fallen comrades are 6.C.13 through 6.C.18, Gord's being 6.C.15. Gordon's headstone at Heverlee reads: "Died for King and Country. Ever Remembered by Mother, Father, and Sisters". The Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC, which has a wonderful website) cares for cemeteries and memorials at 23,000 locations, in 153 countries, commemorating about 1,700,000 people of the Commonwealth forces who died in the two World Wars. Photographs of individual graves are available for a nominal charge from the War Graves Photographic Project. |
Original Graves, Jemappes Municipal Cemetery Dad has a photo of the 6 graves taken in 1943 (probably given to him by Gordon's mother), which initially were marked with wooden crosses. The back of the photo indicates that Gordon's grave was the 3rd from the left. There were a lot of flowers placed around the graves, presumably by the local Belgian residents. The inscriptions on the 3rd and 6th crosses from the left appear to say the following: "?Ici L?? le corps d'un membre inconnu de la RAF décédé le 28.8.43", with a British flag; approximate translation: Here lies the body of an unknown member of the RAF who died 28.8.43. The 4th grave from the left identifies the individual as "Sergent ?Gould". The writing on the other crosses is either covered or illegible on the photograph. Dad had written on the back of the photo that this was the Municipal Cemetery, Jemappes, Belgium (~57 miles from Heverlee). The surroundings certainly resemble Jemappes Municipal Cemetery as it looks today (see Here), rather than Heverlee War Cemetery (see Here), so it appears that maybe the servicemen were initially buried at Jemappes, probably being the closest cemetery to where they had died, and then they were reburied at the military cemetery at Heverlee sometime later. The CWGC website does not show any World War II burials at the Jemappes Municipal Cemetery.
| Dad referred to Mrs. Sproat as "my 2nd mother". A few photos of the Sproats are shown below, including one of Gordon with his first niece (sister Audrey's oldest child), who was born the year before he died, and also a badly scratched and faded image of Gordon and Dad with Mrs. Sproat and Gordon's sister, Mavis ("Maise"). Apparently Mrs. Sproat had hopes that Dad and Mavis would someday make a happy couple, but that never happened! |  Druscilla Sproat (née Middleton), 1944, Birkenhead |
By doing a little genealogy research on the Sproat family, I've found out that Gordon's two sisters, Audrey and Mavis, remained on the Wirral and had children – Gordon would have been an uncle to 3 nieces and 3 nephews. I hope that relatives of Gordon, and maybe of some of the men who died with him in 1943, may come across this blog posting at some point in the future, and find a few photographs and memories for their families. Contact Me if you think I may be able to provide any further information or if you would like a full-resolution image of anything that appears here – or add a comment to this blog posting, which will then also be available for others to see.
UPDATE: Sadly Dad died due to end-stage Parkinson's disease in January 2016, aged 93 years. A few months after Dad's death, one of Gordon's nephews came across this blog posting and contacted me. I subsequently met up with him when I was over in the UK to give him Mrs. Sproat's heart-wrenching letter and some of the photos. I know that Dad would have wanted Gordon's family to have these – he had kept them in his "special box" of memorabilia for more than 72 years. Before handing them over, I made Gordon's nephew promise that he would treasure them and pass them on to someone else in the family who would do the same! Dad would have loved to have met anyone from Gordon's family and told them all about his school friend.
UPDATE (1-Mar-2020): Relatives of the only survivor, Reginald Horten, have posted comments to this blog posting. Prior to this, I did not know the surname of "Reg".
UPDATE (1-Mar-2020): Relatives of the only survivor, Reginald Horten, have posted comments to this blog posting. Prior to this, I did not know the surname of "Reg".
 Gordon Sproat (~1942) |  The last photo of Gordon Sproat, taken at his parents' home in Birkenhead when on leave, about a week before he died (Aug 1943) |  CWGC Commemoration for Gordon Sproat |
 Henry & Druscilla Sproat with their 1st Grandchild (~1943) |  Gordon Sproat (L) with his niece and best friend, David Griffith when both home on leave (~1942) – maybe the last time Dad saw Gordon |  L to R: Gordon Sproat, Mrs. Sproat, Dad, and Mavis Sproat (~1942) |
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