MEMORIES of the wartime service given by Ronald Hornby will be recalled next week by the reading of a poignant poem at his funeral.

Mr Hornby, a former Bomber Command Flight Engineer, died on July 20 at a care home at the age of 91.

Mr Hornby, formerly of Beech Grove, Weaverham, served with Bomber Command during The Second World War with an Australian crew.

The funeral for Mr Hornby takes place at St Mary’s Church, Weaverham, on Wednesday, July 29, and will include the reading of a poem which was found in his log book.

It is entitled Joe – The Flight Engineer, and is a tribute to those who served in Bomber Command in the final words of a Flight Engineer who has been fatally injured.

More than 55,000 of the 125,000 RAF Bomber Command aircrew were killed in the war, a death rate of 44 per cent, and a further 8,000 were wounded and 9,000 were prisoners of war.

Mr Hornby undertook 34 sorties, and attended the unveiling by The Queen in 2012 in Green Park in London of a memorial to the aircrew who lost their lives.

He died peacefully at Avandale Lodge care home in Lostock Graham.

Mr Hornby was the Commanding Officer of Northwich Air Cadets, chairman of the Northwich branch of the RAF Association Wings Club and chairman of the Weaverham branch of the Royal British Legion.

He came from a well-known local family, was born in Cuddington, and spent his life in Weaverham.

Mr Hornby’s wife Phyllis died nine years ago, and he leaves sons Chris and Graham, who live in Hartford and Surrey respectively.

He was father-in-law to Marcia and Julia, granddad to Matthew, Rachael, Carl, Vicky-Louise and Mark, and great grandpa to Sam, Ben and Armani.

The funeral is at 1pm at St Mary’s followed by committal at Vale Royal Crematorium.

Mr Hornby’s family thanked everyone for their kindness, support, prayers and expressions of sympathy.

The funeral service is to be conducted by The Reverend Andrew Brown.

Donations are kindly received for the RAF Benevolent Fund.

Joe – The Flight Engineer

A Flight Engineer lay dying

At the end of a bright summer day

His comrades around him had gathered

To carry his fragments away

The engine was piled on his “Breast Bone”

The Brownings were wrapped round his head

A sparking plug stuck in his ear hole

It was plain he would soon be dead

He coughed up a valve and a gasket

And turned in the sump where he lay

And then to his much worried comrades

These last parting words he did say

“Take the manifold out of my larynx

The throttle out of my hair

Remove from my kidneys the push rod

There’s bag of spare parts around there

Take the cylinder out of my stomach

And the piston rings out of my brain

Extract from my liver the crankshaft

And assemble the engine again.

I’ll be riding the clouds in the morning

With no Stirling beneath me to cuss

So come on lads, get mobile

There’s another Flight Engineer wants the bus

So Gentlemen raise your glasses

To the Heroes of the sky

Here’s a toast to those dead already

And a cheer for the next man to die

Yours heavenly Joe