Last Post - Sergeant Horace Roger Latham

Source: http://www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers

In Memory of
Sergeant HORACE ROGER LATHAM

K/268113, Royal Canadian Air Force
who died age 19
on 10 October 1944
Son of George Alfred and Elizabeth Rachel Latham, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Remembered with honour
RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL

Commemorated in perpetuity by
the Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Sergeant Horace Roger Latham attended #3 Bombing and Gunnery School with many of the airmen in this site. On October 10, 1944 the Halifax aircraft flown by his crew, #LL 501 from 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit (believed to be at Sandtoft in Yorkshire. Sandtoft assumed this role as of Feb. 20th 1944 until Oct 11, 1945. It was a satellite to No. 11 Base, Lindholme.) The crew were returning from a night cross-country exercise when they mistook a bombing range for an airfield. The aircraft went out of control at a low altitude and sank into the mouth of the River Trent. Sergeant Latham is the son of George Alfred and Elizabeth Rachel Latham of Vancouver, B.C.

Known crew members include:

Cameron, Laurence Emmett F/O(N)

Sgt C.B. Greer

and Sgt H.R. Latham .

Flying Officer Navigator Cameron and Clifford Barton Greer are buried in the Stonefall Cemetery at Harrogate, Yorkshire, England.

Sergeant Horace Roger Latham is remembered at Runnymede on Panel 255. The beautiful images at left, courtesy of Antony McCallum of Wyrd Light give a sense of the historic site of Runnymede. The architect Sir Alfred Maufe designed the site so that the sun illuminates the stone panels in turn where the names are engraved. The panel inscribed "Their name liveth for evermore" was selected by the author and poet Sir Rudyard Kipling and is engraved at each Commonwealth War Graves Memorial around the world. Sir Rudyard Kipling had lost a son in the First World War, and selected the phrase after the phrase in Ecclesiasticus. "Their bodies are buried in peace, but their name liveth for evermore."

Antony McCallum has graciously offered to photograph the tablets of the airmen commemorated there, waiting patiently for the sun to illuminate each panel in turn. Panel 255 with the name of Sergeant Horace Roger Latham, age 19, will be posted once we receive the image.

Click here to read the ""They Shall Grow Not Old" entry for Sergeant Horace Roger Latham.

The final image is the certificate issued by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission in memory of Sergeant Horace Roger Latham.

If you are a friend or relative of Sergeant Horace Roger Latham, please contact us.