"Freddie" -- Sgt Frederick George Wilson Tomlinson in his RAF uniform: this photo was taken just after he joined the Royal Air Force as a volunteer in 1940. Red-haired -- the bright shade called "ginger" -- and blue-eyed, he has today a grandson Ben who looks uncannily like him in features, coloring, and build. At Freddie’s death, he left behind him a sorrowing wife Mary and a one-year-old daughter Ann. Mary remarried at Christmas the next year (a match her mum encouraged since Mary was pining away) to Ken Jones, of the Royal Navy, whom Mary'd known before she married Freddie. When Ken returned from war in 1946, he and Mary made of their family one whole. Freddie's daughter Ann and the three children born to Mary and Ken were treated no differently, and loved equally. It says a lot for Ken that he accepted and loved Freddie's daughter as his own. (Later, Ken officially adopted Ann at her request.) Through Mary’s memories, autobiography, and War Office records, all the descendants of both Freddie and Ken came to know, love, and revere Freddie as a good man and true hero, whom they remember with love and gratitude for his bravery and sacrifice. (Photo courtesy of Freddie’s wife Mary Anderson Jones, from her records and autobiography.)

PHOTO ADDED BY THE International Wargraves Photography Project. Original photo is on the Sgt Frank Edwin Spinks' Find A Grave Memorial, but it belongs with all seven memorials for the seven crewmen of the WWII British bomber Halifax MZ631 EY-Y of Squadron 78 who are buried in Longueil Churchyard. There are only five headstones since the last three gravestones mark final resting places of five of the seven crewmen who were, of necessity,buried together in the same grave.

The bomber was brought down over Varengeville-sur-Mer (near Dieppe), Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France, and the damaged aircraft crashed "in open country between Varengeville-sur-Mer (near Dieppe) and Longueil", a village 15 km to the west of Dieppe, the city larger in size and of greater logistical significance. At that time, Longueil, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France, was simply designated Longueil, Oise, France.

From the wreckage the residents of Longueil retrieved the crewmen's remains and solemnly buried them in the "Longueil Communal Cemetery" (probably the "Longueil Churchyard"), marking the graves with five white crosses inscribed "R.A.F. Aviateur Britannique 13 Juin, 1944" (R.A.F. British Aviator, 13 June 1944), and planting flowers on each grave. A black-and-white photo of the graves dated 21 Nov 1947 shows them thus. (And thanks be to those who buried our war dead.)

At the end of the war, an investigation by the British Air Ministry ascertained that all seven crewmen lay buried there and, in 1948, their graves in the Longueil Churchyard were marked with gravestones erected by the Imperial War Graves Commission which allowed family members the input to declare their preferences and contribute a personal inscription if they desired. (Source: personal records of, and Air Ministry correspondence to, Mrs. Mary Anderson Tomlinson, wife of crew member 1301516 Sgt. Freddie Tomlinson R.A.F.V.R., Air Bomber, including the letter informing her that Freddie was missing, and then, over a year later, confirming his death.)

Sergeant ( Air Bomber ) 1301516 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Age 23 British plot, Coll. grave 3-5.

Freddie's gravestone inscription (all in capitals) reads:

"1301516, Sergeant F. G. Tomlinson, Air Bomber. Royal Air Force. 13TH June 1944, Age 23."

"At The Going Down Of The Sun And In The Morning We Will Remember Him."

This last part is taken from the "Ode of Remembrance" which was taken from Laurence Binyon's poem, "For the Fallen", published in The London Times in September 1914. The poem honoured the World War I British war dead but over time the third and fourth stanzas of the poem were claimed as a tribute to all casualties of war. The stanza which Freddie's grave inscription quotes is:

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
"Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
"At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
"We will remember them."
~~Laurence Binyon, "For the Fallen" published 1914,
stanzas of which became part of the "Ode of Remembrance"

(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ode_of_Remembrance.)

Sgt Frederick George Wilson "Freddie" Tomlinson was the son of Frederick Wilson Tomlinson and Phoebe Amelia (Shipley) Tomlinson, and the husband of Mary (Anderson) Tomlinson, all of of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England. He and Mary had one child.

Order of Graves: LEFT to RIGHT: first, GRAVE 1, Sgt Frank Edwin Spinks (Air Gunner); second, GRAVE 2, Sgt Stanley Allan Rae (Pilot); then the following GRAVES 3-5 COLLECTIVELY (the other five crewmen): third or middle gravestone, two names together Sgt Harry George Colwell (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner) (name on top) and Sgt Thomas Gilmartin (name on bottom); fourth or second to last Lieut. Harry Sager (navigator); fifth or last, two names together, Sgt Ronald Edward Miles (Flight Engineer) (name on top) and Sgt Frederick George Tomlinson (Air Bomber), (name on bottom) the last one in the row, far right. On the gravestones, inscriptions in English are all in capitals and only surnames are shown in full; given names are initials only.

The crew of Halifax MZ631 EY-Y lie buried in the south-east corner of Longueil Churchyard, Longueil, Oise, Seine-Maritime, Haute-Normandie, France.