Sergeant, Wireless Operator/Air Gunner. Royal Air Force. Service Number 1128375.
Lancaster III. 460 Squadron R.A.F. Binbrook. Bomber Command.
Early life:
George Edward was born on the 10th of August in 1918 at Fylde in Lancashire. His parents were George Cleverly and Dora Cleverly née Beale. George was a Police Constable.
They were married at Fylde in Lancashire, registered there in the second quarter of 1918.
George aged 42 and Dora aged 37 were recorded at The Bungalow, South Promenade, St. Anne’s on the Sea, Lancashire and we suspect they were on holiday at that time as it was the home of John and Ellen Cartmel and their son Roger. George junior is not recorded with his parents on this date but he would have been aged about four at that time. Perhaps he was staying with a relative.
His mother Dora died on the 24th of April 1924 whilst at the Royal Infirmary on Deepdale Road, Preston in Lancashire. She was aged just 38 and her death was registered in the second quarter of that year at Preston. She left the sum of £110 to her husband George.
George senior remarried in 1927 to Mary O’Neill, recorded in the first quarter of that year at Preston in Lancashire.
In the 1939 Register, George Edward was living with his parents at 22, Ashton Drive in Lancaster. His father George aged 60 was a Pensioned Police Constable and his 48 year old stepmother Mary was on unpaid domestic duties. Also living here was Agnes O’Neill aged 51, also on unpaid domestic duties. Agnes is probably Mary’s sister.
George Edward was aged 21 and employed as a joiner, carpenter and undertaker.
There are also two redacted records of persons living at this address.
At some point George moved to the Haworth and Cross Roads area where he married Clara Tempest.
(Clara was living at 82, Haworth Road in the 1939 Register with her mother, widow Mary Tempest. This is roughly opposite the Halifax Road entrance to Cross Roads Park)
George Edward Cleverly married Clara Tempest in April 1942, recorded in Keighley in the second quarter of that year. George and Clara would have both been aged about 24 when they married.
War service:
George enlisted with the Royal Air Force.
He was posted from Number 1656 Conversion unit to 460 Squadron at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire on 7th October 1943.
He was serving as a wireless operator/gunner on a Lancaster Bomber crew when it was one of eighteen aircraft which took off at RAF Binbrook late on 8th October 1943. Two of these aircraft failed to return. Their aircraft took off at 22.59 on the 8th November and would have been over the target area after midnight on the next day, 9th October.
National Archives, AIR-27-1908-20:
OPERATONS RECORD BOOK.
DETAIL OF WORK CARRIED OUT.
By 460 Squadron R.A.A.F., BINBROOK.
FOR THE MONTH OF October 1943.
DATE: 8.10.1943.
AIRCRAFT TYPE & NUMBER: EE 202.
CREW:
AUS W/O NORMAN, R.A.
AUS F/S ELLERY, E.J
SGT WELLS, L.E.P.
AUS F/S SIMPSON J. O.
AUS F/S THOMAS, D.S.
SGT CLEVERLY, G.E.
SGT O’DONOGHUE, D.
SGT KILLIE, P.F.
DUTY: Operations HANOVER. TIME UP: 22.59.
DETAILS OF SORTIE OR FLIGHT: Bombing Attack on HANOVER.
Bomb Load 1 x 4,000 lbs; HC 2 x 1000 lbs; MCTD 0.025 1.1099 GPLD (36 hours) 48 x 30 lbs; INCS 810 x 4 lbs; INCS 30 x 4 lbs; INCS “X” filled. This aircraft left Base at the appointed time to attack HANOVER, but since then nothing has been heard of either the aircraft or the crew.
According to the World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour of 1939-1945, their aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter from 12 Squadron near Barsinghausen, Southwest of the Target. Of the eight crew members, five died during the crash and three survived but were captured and became prisoners of war.
The crew members who died were: Aus/413688 Flight Sergeant David Sterrit Thomas; 1128375 Sergeant George Edward Cleverly; 933194 Sergeant Donald O’Donoghue; 1604457 Sergeant Laurence Ernest Percival Wells and 1851581 Sergeant Peter Frederick Kille.
Those who became prisoners of war were: Australian Warrant Officer R.A. Norman; Australian Flight Sergeant E.J. Ellery and Australian Flight Sergeant J.O. Simpson.
Post war and Remembrance:
George was aged 25 when he was killed in action. He and his comrades were initially buried at Bars Inghausen Cemetery but on the 6th of December 1946 their remains were exhumed and reburied at Hanover (Limmer) British Cemetery which is just over three miles from the centre of Hanover. They are all commemorated with Commonwealth War Graves headstones and they are buried in adjoining graves 12 to 16 inclusive, of row C in plot 3. The family inscription on George’s headstone reads: ‘At Rest.’
George is named on the Cross Roads WW2 Roll of Service which is on display at St. James Church, Cross Roads.
Clara remarried, to William Georgeson in 1948. Their marriage was recorded at Staincliffe in the third quarter of that year.
George’s stepmother Mary died aged 74 in late 1962 and his father George died aged 87 in 1966. Both their deaths were recorded at Lancaster in Lancashire.
Clara died aged 88 on the 27th of February 2006.
Information sources:
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1916-2007.
1939 England and Wales Register.
England & Wales, Civil Registration Marriage Index, 1916-2005.
UK and Allied Countries, Index of International Bomber Command Losses, 1936-1966.
World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour, 1939-1945.
Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
England and Wales, Death Index, 1989-2025.
Family tree on Ancestry.
International Bomber Command Losses Database.
The National Archives
460 RAAF (Royal Australian Air Force) Records of Events
Lancaster Bomber EE202
Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1908/20.
Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1908/19.
Page 18 EE202, Page 28 EE202, Page 31 EE202 Aircraft apparently lost.
