WE are nearing completion of a project to commemorate the death of eight Second World War airmen in the mountains around our town of Blaenau Ffestiniog.

Four slate plaques have been commissioned recording the sacrifice of the aircrew involved in the four crashes and these will be mounted on a half-ton slate block in the garden of our local church.

A service is being planned at the church to inaugurate the memorial and we would like your help in location relatives and hopefully a photograph of the airmen involved.

On the night of 21st March, 1941 a Vickers Wellington MK1c serial number R3288 of 150 Squadron RAF was returning from a raid on Lorient in Brittany.

Damaged and lost, the plane hit the upper slopes of Moel Farlwyd killing five of the six-man crew. They were: Flying Officer (Pilot) Charles Hamerton Elliot – aged 21 Pilot Officer Roland Clive Parkhurst – aged 24 Wireless Operator/Air Gunner Sergeant Lewis John Kirk – aged 27 Air Gunner Sergeant John Killen – aged 20 Twenty-four-year-old Pilot Officer Roland Clive Parkhurst is buried, in Andover so we hope that means there is a possibility of there being family still in the area.

Could any relatives get in touch?

Mel Thomas, 2 Hafod Ruffydd, BLAENAU FFESTINIOG, Meirionnydd, LL413DQ