Trevelyan (Trevor) Ivan Powis

Trevor Powis was just 19 years old when he was attached to Halifax Mk.II (JP319) ‘D’ of 502 Sqn., piloted by Flt. Lt. J.H. Burrough, took-off from RAF Stornoway at 14.14hrs on 26th November 1944 on a ‘Gardening’anti-shipping sortie to The Skagerrak, off the Norwegian and Danish coasts. Apart from the normal crew, on board was the newly appointed Commanding Officer of 502 Sqn., Wing Commander Corbould, who was on an operational area familiarisation flight. The aircraft was loaded with a typical war load for such operations, six 500-pound Mk.II anti-shipping bombs. A signal was received from the aircraft at 19.00hrs, after which nothing further was heard.

The aircraft failed to return from the sortie and was assumed lost, reason unknown. The squadron Operational Record Book (ORB) records that, ‘It was learnt from another source that the aircraft was shot-down off the Swedish coast’. A short while after the loss of the aircraft, the body of P/O G. Booth,one of the crew members, was washed ashore in Norway, and was buried in the nearby cemetery at Tonsberg, Norway.None of the other crew members were ever recovered.

Although Trevor has no known resting place he is comemorated on his parents headstone in Leominster Cemetry. The grave is generaly well tended and the Unit keep an eye on it as well.

In 2019 the Explorers made a video to help us understand just how young Trevor was as the time the world descended into turmoil