Beckett, Geoffrey

Title

Beckett, Geoffrey
G Beckett

Description

94 items. The collection concerns Sergeant Geoffrey Beckett (622136 Royal Air Force) and contains his diary, bible, notebook, correspondence, an album, photographs and details of his crew. He flew operations as an air gunner with 44 Squadron and was killed 17 December 1942.

The collection has been loaned to the IBCC Digital Archive for digitisation by Christopher Bruce Garden and catalogued by Nigel Huckins.

Additional information on Geoffrey Beckett is available via the IBCC Losses Database.

Date

2020-07-25

Publisher

IBCC Digital Archive

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.

Identifier

Beckett, G

Collection Items

Geoffrey Beckett's diary
Diary from 7 November 1941. Notes being posted to air gunner course after ITW. Posted to Bridlington then RAF Llandwrog. Daily diary from 21 March 1942. Goes on to describes daily activities and training including flying. Writes about leaves and…

Architecture notebook 1937
Includes extensive notes and diagrams (architectural plans. interior sketches of windows, arches and decorations).

Letter from Peggy to Geoff Beckett
Includes envelopes and 5 page letter from Peggy not knowing he had been killed, asking after Geoffrey Beckett and passing news of friends and acquaintances. Writes a little about Stamford and mentioning Wittering.

Notes and Lancaster KM-F
Brief note that epitaph was a few lines in squadron operational record book. Geoff's kit was back at RAF Uxbridge where he started service. Photograph of the nose of a parked Lancaster with ground crew cleaning windscreen and front turret. Captioned…

Sergeant Geoffrey Beckett graves
Three photographs, two showing the original grave with wooden cross and the third the later headstone. Gives some personal details.

Aircraft lost form
Form with details of loss of W4126. List six crew killed and one survived as prisoner of war. Note that the some crew names are incorrectly filled in against their roles.

Sergeant Gordon W Jones - rear gunner in W4126
Starts with some personal details of Sergeant Gordon William Jones (1395418 RAF (VR)) - rear gunner. Died in aircraft. Includes photographs of himself, of his grave headstone, view down interior of Lancaster fuselage to rear turret, his parents at…

George Read - flight engineer in W4126
Sergeant George Read - survived by parachute. Includes photographs of himself and his wife, flight engineers station in cockpit, view down from cockpit to hatch in nose of Lancaster, caterpillar club membership card, prisoners of war in Stammlager…

Sergeant Geoffrey Beckett - mid-upper gunner in W4126
Includes some personal details of Sergeant Geoffrey Beckett (622136 RAF) qualified as WOP/Tech was mid-upper gunner. Includes photographs of his grave headstone in Den Burg (Texel) cemetery, himself, view of inside fuselage of Lancaster, wreckage of…

Sergeant Kenneth McLeod - wireless operator aboard KM-B (W4126)
Gives some personal details of Sergeant Kenneth McLeod (1058806 RAF(VR). Includes photographs of his grave headstone, wireless operators station and front turret of Lancaster.
He also manned the front turret. In addition is a postcard sent by his…

Flying Officer James Loree - bomb aimer in W4126
Gives some personal details of Flying Officer James William Loree (J/1109 RCAF) air observer. Includes photographs of his grave headstone, himself (with accompanying poem), bomb bay of Lancaster, bombs on trolley, bomb aimers station with…

Flying Officer Ray McCleery - navigator of W4126
Notes he died in the aircraft. Includes photographs of headstone of grave, of him, and of navigators chart table. Followed by two maps with details of an operation to Duisburg and navigators with observations.

Flying Officer Lawrence McNamara, captain of W4126 - Geoffrey Beckett's Lancaster
Includes personal details of Lawrence Gerard Lyons McNamara (80193 RAFVR), photograph of headstone of his grave, photograph of him and first grave, photographs of aircraft and letter from George Read (flight engineer and only survivor) to Mrs…

Page from log book
List 9 operations between 6 October 1942 and 17 December 1942. Targets in Germany and Italy were Nienburg, Osnabrück, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Genoa, and Turin. On last notes 'missing in action'. Signed by OC 44 Squadron.

Details of the last moments of Lancaster 4162
Speculates over the height of the Lancaster when the Flight Engineer, Sergeant George Read baled out. Supplies some expert testimony.

Geoff's Lancaster
Six page document with details of and the loss of the loss of Geoffrey Beckett's Lancaster.
Page 1 - rear quarter b/w photograph of a Lancaster parked on grass. Caption details arrival of aircraft and squadron letters KM-B. Follows details of minor…

Crew of KM-B W4126 - 44 Squadron
List crew and notes grave location and one PoW.

Details of operations - Sgt Beckett G, mid-upper gunner
Gives details of each operations including number and types of aircraft taking part, losses, details of attack and results. Page 1 - gives details of operation to Osnabruck and dairy entry for 6/7 October 1942. Diary comments that it was first trip…

RAF Waddington - the conversion flight
Gives training history of crew. Having completed training on Wellington at Finningley, posted tie RAF Waddington for conversion to the Lancaster. Joined by rear gunner and flight engineer. Mentions that at this time conversion training was done on…

Air gunner's brevet and sergeant's stripes
Cloth air gunner brevet badge and cloth sergeant rank. In the background part of a diary entry mentioning LLandwrog, Hazel, journey. Concludes with statement June 1st finals tomorrow.

Note about Hazel Salisbury
Note states 'Hazels surname is Salisbury - Bryn Hendre, Llanbeblig Road, Caer, N Wales. Sorry if I never told you before.Its a jolly decent station and the chaps are OK - the aircraft are wonderful, Mom - Lancasters, well I will write later'.

House
Two storey white end of terrace house with downstairs bay window and attic window. Captioned 'Bryn Hendre, in Llanbeblig Road, Caernarvon. North Wales. Hazel Salisbury's family home where fiancé, Geoff Beckett "The Englishman", was always made so…

Drawing of a Whitley inverted
Drawing of a Whitley in an inverted dive with clouds in the background. Captioned 'the aircraft stalled ... turned half over ... and then went on ok ... tho it ought normally have spun into the sea...'.

Airmen and billet
Top right - two airmen wearing greatcoats and side caps standing in countryside with tree in the background. Captioned 'Right: the photograph caption reads: Jack and Geoff near Wansford. (a village near Wittering) taken by Sidney Ball'.
Bottom left…

Lorries in front of building and man watching Hurricane
Top - view of two story building with lorries parked in front including two bowsers. Captioned 'Top: No 213 Squadron's transports lined up prior to departure for foreign service 3rd March 1940. The line up includes two fuel bowsers and servicing…
View all 94 items

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