Notes
The All About Thornton website (see References) states: ‘John Battersby, son of Samuel and Helena Battersby; husband of Alice Battersby, of 11 Moss Street, Thornton. In the 1939 Register he was a Supervisor Hoover Salesman. Sergeant, flight engineer, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 76 Sqdn, #971129. Died 4th June, 1942, aged 29. Grave reference, 5.D.3, Sage War Cemetery, (Germany). Sergeant Battersby was in a Halifax mark II bomber, serial number W1104 from RAF Middleton St. George, (then in Yorkshire now in County Durham), one of 170 aircraft on its way to bomb Bremen. The aircraft took off at 23.14. It was presumed lost in the North Sea near to the Dutch island of Vlieland. Some of the crew are buried on that island. He was originally buried at Memmert Sand, one of the German Frisian islands. In 1947 his body was moved to Sage War Cemetery.'