Notes
All additional information and this short biography are supplied thanks to the research of the Blackpool Grammar School Old Boys: 'In the Service Records he is listed as “Whitaker”. He was the son of James Neville Whittaker (?) of Hesketh Avenue, and came to the School from Palatine in 1926. After leaving he was an accountant with Heyworths Musical Instrument Dealers. He joined the RAF at the outbreak of war in 1939 (No 144777) and trained as a Bomb Aimer. He must have been very accomplished at his work, because he was posted to join the most famous Squadron of all – No 617 (The Dambusters). After all the training and preparation, he lost his life on the raid on Sunday 16th May 1943 when his aircraft (Lancaster AJ-K piloted by Pilot Officer K Byers) was the first to be shot down on the raid – by a lucky flak shot over the island of Texel in Northern Holland. The aircraft instantly exploded, killing everyone on board, and only one body of the crew was ever found. He was a sergeant at the time of his death, but his commission and promotion to Pilot Officer arrived two days after he was killed, and his name is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, and his name is also inscribed on a memorial stone in the wall of Bispham United Reform Church.'