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
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