Name
Sydney Wickenden
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
26/08/1943
41
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Squadron Leader
43589
Royal Air Force
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Twice Mentioned in Despatches
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
Gibraltar Memorial
Gibraltar
Headstone Inscription
NA
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. Saviour's Church Memorial, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
His Service Number was 43589. He had an engineering background and served at Henlow near Hitchin and was promoted to Squadron Leader. He was posted to North Front, Gibraltar and the operational record book for the Air Station shows that he was killed as a result of an accident. He had been twice mentioned in despatches. He was killed when a damaged plane, which was being held on a crane for repair, fell and crushed him.
He was buried at sea off Gibraltar and is commemorated on the Gibraltar Cross of Sacrifice War Memorial. He was twice Mentioned in Despatches.
When his wife died her ashes were, in accordance with her wishes, also scattered at sea off Gibraltar. In 2000 his two daughters visited the Rock as guests of the R.A.F. and were taken out to sea in an R.A.F. launch for a private remembrance service.
He was the son of Charles and Emily Wickenden and the husband of Ivy Martha Wickenden of Hitchin. They had a son Alec who moved to Sydney Australia and two daughters, one of whom lives (2000) in High Wycombe and the other in Holland.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Alec Wickenden - his son, Mrs Doreen Burge - his daughter, Mr D. Moore, Sec. - Aircrew Association (North Herts Branch), Paul Johnson - local historian
