Letter to Doris Muir from the Air Ministry
Title
Letter to Doris Muir from the Air Ministry
Description
Part of a letter informing that her son died as a result of air operations. Advising that one of the three unidentified crew members had been found and buried.
Date
1944-04-03
Language
Format
One typewritten sheet
Publisher
Rights
This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.
Contributor
Identifier
EAirMinMuirPE440403-0001
Transcription
AIR MINISTRY,
(Casualty Branch),
73-77 OXFORD STREET,
LONDON, W.1.
[inserted] 3 [/inserted] April, 1944,
Telephone No: GERRARD 9234
Trunk Calls and Telegraphic Address} “AIR MINISTRY,” LONDON
P.406128/4/P.4.A.2.
Madam,
I am commanded by the Air Council to inform you that they have with great regret to confirm the telegram in which you were notified that, in view of further information now received from the International Red Cross Committee, your son, Sergeant Reginald William Lingfield Muir, Royal Air Force, is believed to have lost his life as the result of the air operations on the night of 8/9th July, 1943.
The committee have now forwarded an official German list in which it is stated that the body of an “unknown” member of the crew of the aircraft in which your son was flying on that night was found in a cornfield on 2nd August and was buried on 3rd August in grave numbered 276 in St. Trond Cemetery. As you are already aware the Committee had already reported that six other occupants of the aircraft, of whom three were “unknown”, were killed on 9th July. The aircraft carried a total of seven and it must now be assumed that one of the “unknown” was your son. The necessary steps for formal presumption of your son’s death, for official purposes, will therefore be taken shortly. A further / letter
Mrs. P.E. Muir,
26, Holcroft Road,
Hackney, E.9.
(Casualty Branch),
73-77 OXFORD STREET,
LONDON, W.1.
[inserted] 3 [/inserted] April, 1944,
Telephone No: GERRARD 9234
Trunk Calls and Telegraphic Address} “AIR MINISTRY,” LONDON
P.406128/4/P.4.A.2.
Madam,
I am commanded by the Air Council to inform you that they have with great regret to confirm the telegram in which you were notified that, in view of further information now received from the International Red Cross Committee, your son, Sergeant Reginald William Lingfield Muir, Royal Air Force, is believed to have lost his life as the result of the air operations on the night of 8/9th July, 1943.
The committee have now forwarded an official German list in which it is stated that the body of an “unknown” member of the crew of the aircraft in which your son was flying on that night was found in a cornfield on 2nd August and was buried on 3rd August in grave numbered 276 in St. Trond Cemetery. As you are already aware the Committee had already reported that six other occupants of the aircraft, of whom three were “unknown”, were killed on 9th July. The aircraft carried a total of seven and it must now be assumed that one of the “unknown” was your son. The necessary steps for formal presumption of your son’s death, for official purposes, will therefore be taken shortly. A further / letter
Mrs. P.E. Muir,
26, Holcroft Road,
Hackney, E.9.
Collection
Citation
Great Britain. Air Ministry. Casualty Branch, “Letter to Doris Muir from the Air Ministry,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed June 14, 2025, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/collections/document/42548.