Life story written by Paul Beecroft
1801474 Sergeant
A.J.G. (JIMMY) KING
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner
Royal Air Force
22nd April 1944 Age 20
In proud memory
of my darling husband.
Till we meet again
Jimmy KING was a resident of Reading but very little is known about him at the moment. He was born in December 1923 in Newton Abbot. His parents were Arthur and Bessie KING. At some point they moved to Reading and in 1939 they resided at 7, Bulmershe Road. Most likely, at the age of 18 Jimmy enlisted in the R.A.F. and attained the rank of Sergeant. In March 1944 he married Eileen Cecilia BETTERIDGE in Reading.
Jimmy was stationed at RAF Wigsley in Nottinghamshire and was a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner in a Stirling III Heavy Bomber Aircraft. On the evening of 21st April 1944, just one month after being married, Jimmy, along with six other crew members, boarded their Stirling Bomber EH926 for a night training flight. During the early hours of the 22nd April his aircraft collided with another Stirling III (EF498) containing eight crew members. It appears that all crew members from both aircraft were sadly killed.
Division 69, Row E, Plot 1