RAF hero given fitting farewell in Holland

2:36pm Thursday 15th May 2008

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AN Addingham woman travelled to Holland last week to see her mother's wartime sweetheart laid to rest with full military honours - 66 years after he was killed.

Sheila Hamilton attended the burial ceremony of Flight Sergeant John Paddy' Kehoe and Stanley Mullenger at Bergen Military Cemetery.

They were members of the four man crew of an RAF Hampden bomber which was shot down as it returned from a raid over the industrial city of Essen, Germany in 1941.

At the time, Sgt Kehoe had just become engaged to nurse Mary Irving (Wrighton), of Burley-in-Wharfedale. Despite going on to marry and have six children - including her daughter, Sheila - Mrs Wrighton never forgot her wartime romance with the dashing 20-year-old RAF hero.

After a successful attack by a German night fighter, Sgt Kehoe's Hampden crashed into a potato field near the village of Berkhout in Holland.

The bodies of two crew members were thrown clear but the bodies of Sgt Kehoe and Sergeant Stanley Mullenger remained in the wreckage of the plane until last year when they were dug up in a £750,000 project financed by the Dutch Government.

It was intended that Sgt Kehoe would be returned to a family plot in his native County Wexford, in Ireland but experts discovered that the remains of both crewmen were too inextricably bound up together to separate.

The decision was taken that they would be laid to rest with the other two crew members in the Dutch military cemetery nearby.

Mrs Hamilton began researching the tragic story on behalf of her mother and has gradually been drawn into the wider relationship of the Dutch and English people who forged a long lasting bond of friendship in the furnace of war-time adversity.

When she arrived back in Britain, Mrs Hamilton said: "On the whole it all went well, and quite by default I found myself sitting on the same table as the British and Irish Ambassadors for the Royal Kingdom of The Netherlands.

"Also there was an air commodore, Andrew Sudlow, of the RAF whom I spoke to. I chatted also to the British Ambassador during the lunch that took place after the funeral.

"The Dutch Air and Navy services were very well represented, including Captain Paul Petersen who was in charge of the excavation of the plane. All the relatives have said this man did a fantastic job and we are all grateful for his utter dedication and professionalism towards P1206.

"The MOD and the Dutch authorities did a marvellous job, and it all went off without a hitch."

John Kehoe's sister, Margaret, made the journey from Tullamore, County Offfaly, Ireland. She said: "I wanted to say goodbye to him after all these years."

Another 300 people attended the ceremony including 25 relatives.

"They flew together and died together 66 years ago. They will now finally all rest together," said Mrs Hamilton.

A spokesman for the MOD said: "As a mark of comradeship, the remains of Sergeant Mullenger, Wireless OperatorAir Gunner on the Hampden, and Sergeant Kehoe, Air Gunner, have been laid in a single coffin beneath headstones lying back-to-back with the graves of their previously buried companions.

"As the Queen's Colour Squadron lowered the coffin into its final resting place, a trumpeter from the Band of the RAF Regiment played The Last Post' and, as a tribute to the downed airmen, two Harvard AT-6 aircraft from the Royal Netherlands Air Force performed a flypast over the grave."