Pilot Officer Alfred Robert William Milne, of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
618 Squadron, died on 11th October 1944, aged 22, in a training flight over the North York Moors. He died along with Warrant Officer Eric Stubbs, who came from Guildford, Surrey.
Their remains were discovered on a farm near Chop Gate, North Yorkshire, in March 2020. A police investigation was launched to identify the remains, which were returned to their families. In August 2021 they were given a military funeral. This was reported in the national press and covered by ITV.
The Commonwealth War Grave Commission website states that a memorial to Pilot Officer Milne is in the London Road Cemetery, Mitcham, in plot 14, grave 8633.
Alfred Milne’s parents, Alfred Charles and Daisy Milne, lived at no. 96 Lammas Avenue according to the 1939 electoral register. The details of his will show that he and his wife were at the same address. They had married in July 1943.
MILNE, Alfred Robert William, of 96 Lammas-avenue, Mitcham, Surrey, died 11 October 1944, on war service.
Administration Llandudno
5 April 1945to Gwendolen Margaret Milne widow.
Effects £86 19s. 1d.
From the UK, World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour, 1939-1945 on Ancestry:
Flew into a hill near Bransdale, Yorks in low cloud during a transit flight from Warboys to Turnberry while carrying a highball bomb.
His death was reported on the front page of the 3rd November 1944 issue of the Mitcham News & Mercury, although they gave his rank as Warrant Officer.
KILLED IN A PLANE CRASH
After Completing Tour of “ Ops ”
ANOTHER old boy of Western-road School is this week reported to have been killed on service. He was Warrant Officer Alfred R. W. Milne (aged 22), eldest son of Mr. and Mrs. A. T. C. Milne, Lammas-avenue, Mitcham, who was killed in a plane crash in Yorkshire.
W.O. Milne, who married Miss Gwendoline Oliver, Lavender-avenue, Mitcham, a year ago last July, had just completed his tour of “ops.” Among his friends was Ken Pile, also an old boy of Western-road, who, as reported recently in the “News and Mercury” has just been awarded the D.F.M.
Before volunteering at the outbreak of war, W.O. Milne was a postman at the South-West London District Office. He spent eighteen months training in Canada, and returned to this country to serve with Coastal Command.
He was a member of the First Mitcham Group of Boy Scouts.
Ken Pile was also killed in a flying accident, in March 1945.
Mitcham History Notes 