Name
Field John James Albert
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
02/01/1943
22
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Pilot Officer
J/16910
Royal Canadian Air Force
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
HITCHIN CEMETERY
N.W.Extn. Grave 408.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
ONE OF THE FEW TO WHOM SO MANY OWE SO MUCH
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He arrived in the United Kingdom in August 1941 and was a Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner in 418 Squadron. His Service Number was J/16910. At the time of his death the Squadron was flying Bostons from Bradwell Bay Airfield in Essex.
The Squadron had been instructed to attack a whaling factory in Cherbourg but the aircraft were recalled. The circumstances of his death are not known but he was killed on active service according to the newspaper report.
The funeral service took place in St. Mary's Church with full military honours including the sounding of the ‘Last Post’. Officers and men of his Squadron attended. He was buried in Grave 408 north west extension and the stone in Hitchin Cemetery has the additional inscription ‘One of the few to whom so many owe so much’.
He was the son of William Robert and Rosetta Jane Field of Toronto, Canada. He married Leading Aircraftswoman Jenny Annette Cantor daughter of Mr and Mrs Cantor of 49, Strathmore Ave, Hitchin in September 1942. The best man at his wedding was Pilot Officer Peter White who was piloting the aircraft when they were killed.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Paul Johnson - local historian, ‘RAF. Squadrons’ by C.G. Jefford, ‘Bomber Command Diaries’ by M. Middlebrook & C. Everitt, Herts Pictorial dated 5th & 12th Jan 1943
