STANLEY EDWARD CROOKS
Stanley was a Air Gunner Sergeant in 156 Squadron Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.
Service No : 1321533
He was born in 1924 the son of Glencoe Symon Stanley and Florence Louise Crooks of Little Thurrock, Grays.
He went to St Thomas’s School in Grays before joining the Bata Shoe Company. He was a popular boy whilst at school who would help the Nuns with some of the teaching.
He was employed in the Freight Department before joining the R.A.F. in October 1941, aged 17.
His Manager said of him in the Bata Record ” He was one of those quiet, efficient workers who just get on with his job and did it well”.
It was reported in the Bata Record that his body was recovered from the Sea off the Dutch coast a month after he was reported lost on his way back from a raid over Germany. Prior to this he had been transferred from Wellington’s to Lancasters.
Stanley died on Saturday 3rd April, 1943, aged 18. Night Raid on Essen in a Avro Lancaster I.
Buried : Bergen-Op-Zoom War Cemetery
Stanley, on the left, with the crew of his Lancaster.
Bata Record
09.04.43
25.06.43
09.06.44
