Sergeant Navigator. 463 (R.A.A.F.) Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Service Number: 1624631.
Early life:
Cecil’s parents were Holmes Sunderland and Annie Sunderland née Hudson, who were married in Keighley, registered in the third quarter of 1911. Cecil was born in 1916 and his birth was registered in the first quarter of the year.
In the 1921 census they were living at Lower Isle in Oxenhope. Holmes was aged 32 and was a worsted warehouseman employed by Merralls of Haworth at Lees Mill. Annie was aged 33 and a burler and mender, also employed by Merralls but working at their Lowertown Mill where they did worsted coatings. Cecil was aged five at that time and was at school ‘whole time’ and this would have been at Lees Council School.
He later studied at the Keighley School of Art and Crafts.
By 1939 Holmes and Annie were living at 69 Hebden Road, Cross Roads. Holmes was aged 51 and a textile motor driver (heavy work) whilst Annie was aged 52 and on unpaid domestic duties.
Cecil would have been aged around 23 but he was not recorded living here in the Register as he was living at 26, Rogerson Square in Brighouse where he was serving as a police constable. Also living here were Robert and Elizabeth Walker aged 69 and 64 respectively and it’s likely that they had Cecil either boarding or lodging with them as a bit of extra income, because Robert was a part-time gardener and probably semi-retired.
Cecil’s future wife Sylvia Constance Clay was aged 24 and living about a third of a mile away at 13, Lister Street with her parents Leonard and Edith Clay, both aged about 64. It’s possible that they met through work, as Cecil was a police constable and Sylvia was a solicitor’s clerk.
In 1940, Cecil married Sylvia in the Calder Ward of Brighouse and their marriage was registered there in the first quarter of the year.
War service:
Cecil enlisted in the Royal Air Force in 1942. He was serving as a Sergeant Navigator on Lancaster Bombers, based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
They had one child who was probably David A. C. Sunderland, born at Hemsworth in the second quarter of 1943.
Cecil was killed in action on 6th November 1944, when his Lancaster NF990 was shot down during a bombing raid on the Dortmund-Ems/Mitteland Canal Junction Near Gravenhorst, which was aborted due to the target being obscured by heavy cloud cover. Thirteen aircraft took off and ten returned, three were missing.
Cecil’s aircraft was apparently shot down by the crew of Leutnant Fries & Feldwebel Staffa of the 2./NJG 1, who had become airborne from Manster-Handorf at 19:04 hrs in Heinkel He 219 A-0 G9+GK. The Heinkel 219 was a twin engine specialist night fighter.
After their aircraft crashed, five of the crew survived and became prisoners of war. Cecil was killed in action during this time and the mid-upper gunner Sergeant Stanley Harding was very badly wounded, dying almost three weeks later on 25th November.
The crew members of NF990 were:
Sergeant E Evans (2211558) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) PoW
Sergeant J A Hayward (939402) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer) PoW
Sergeant Stanley Harding (3005903) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner) Fatally injured, Died on 25 November 1944
Flying Officer Cyril Joseph Lynch (424270) (Pilot and Aircraft Captain) PoW Discharged from the RAAF: 31 July 1947
Flight Sergeant Richard Charles Rogers (1587087) (RAFVR) (Bomb Aimer) PoW
Sergeant Cecil Sunderland (1624631) (RAFVR) (Navigator) died 6th November 1944.
Flight Sergeant Eric Alfred Woolmer (432327) (Wireless Operator Air) PoW Discharged from the RAAF: 9 October 1945
The men were all posted missing at the time until official information was found. Because of the time delay in the war, it would have required a lot of careful checks and they would need to verify prisoner of war records first through the International Red Cross.
Cecil’s death was eventually confirmed over six months later, appearing in the Keighley News.
Keighley News 23rd June 1945:
Mr. and Mrs. Holmes Sunderland, of 69, Hebden Road, Haworth, have received information that their son, Sergeant Cecil Sunderland, R.A.F.V.R. (navigator), who was reported missing in November, 1944, over Germany, is now known to have lost his life. Sergeant Sunderland, who was 29, had been in the Air Force since 1942. Prior to joining up he was a member of the West Riding Constabulary, and had been stationed at Brighouse and South Elmsall, near Pontefract. He was educated at Lees Council School and Keighley School of Art and Crafts. Haworth people will remember him as a butcher in business in Sun Street before joining the police force in 1937. He leaves a widow and a son who reside at South Elmsall.
Post war and Remembrance:
According to the 1939 Register, Sylvia remarried on 29th June 1948 when her surname became Long. A marriage record shows her marrying Rowland Long in that year, with the registration in the second quarter of the year at Calder, Brighouse.
Cecil’s grave was originally at the Lede Cemetery in Germany and on the 31st of March 1947 his remains were exhumed and reburied at Reichswald Forest British Cemetery (RAF Extension) in Germany.
His family added the following inscription to his CWGC headstone:
“He died for peace and those he loved, and those he loved remember.”
Cecil is named on the Cross Roads Roll of Service on display at St. James Church, Cross Roads. He is not named on the Borough of Keighley WW2 memorial board at Keighley Library.
Cecil’s father Holmes Sunderland died aged 74 in the last quarter of 1962, registered in the Worth Valley. His mother Annie died aged 91 in the last quarter of 1978, registered in Keighley.
We did not find a death record for Sylvia.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1837-1915.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007.
1921 England Census.
1939 England and Wales Register.
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour, 1939-1945.
UK and Allied Countries, Index of International Bomber Command Losses, 1936-1966.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Keighley News WW2 Scrapbook at Keighley Library.
www.findagrave.com.
www.aviationmuseumwa.org.au.
Air Operations: (No. 463 Squadron Lancaster aircraft NF990), Germany, 6 November 1944.
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804)).
www.aviation-safety.net.
Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944.
www.aircrewremembered.com.
www.losses.internationalbcc.co.uk
National Archives: AIR 27/1922/5, AIR 27/1922/6.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007.
Note:
Several pieces of significant information have been gleaned from the above websites and we are very grateful to the individual researchers for their time and efforts in discovering what happened to the men of this aircraft and the circumstances in which it was shot down.
