The Commonwealth War Graves Commission have done a fantastic job, in recent years, of placing the traditional war grave headstones onto relevant burials at Moorthorpe Cemetery. Amongst them are some curious, and tragic fallen heroes, including female service people and personnel from far flung lands. For a number of reasons not all burials are able to be given the headstone afforded to them, and one such person is Flight Sergeant Allan Benjamin Talbot.

Flight Sergeant Talbot, a wireless operator, service number 417674, was based at Royal Air Force Sandtoft, Lincolnshire, with 1667 Heavy Conversion Unit, Bomber Command. Born in North Adelaide, South Australia, on the 20th of August 1919, he was the son of Theopholus Benjamin Talbot and Stella May Talbot. The 1943 Hindmarsh sub-division electoral register of 1943 showed that the Talbot family lived at 62 Stuart Road, Grange. Grange is a coastal suburb of the City of Charles Sturt, in Adelaide, South Australia, located about seven miles from Adelaide city centre.

On the 12th of August, 1944 the bomber on which Flight Sergeant Talbot was flying crashed close to Bawtry. RAF Bomber Command Losses Volume 8 by W. R. Chorley, tells us that the Handley Page Halifax V (registration EB192) took off from Royal Air Force Sandtoft at 01:33 hours for a night bombing training exercise. While banking to starboard in cloud the pilot lost control and crashed at 01:53 hours onto high ground on the border between Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire, killing all seven crew. This was recorded in RAF Sandtoft records as having been near Wiseton, close to Bawtry and at a time of low cloud and rain. RAF Sandtoft was a short lived station, opening in 1944 and closing in 1945. Heavy Conversion Units were training organisations used to qualify crews trained on medium bombers to operate the heavy bombers before final posting to the operational squadrons.

Flight Sergeant Talbot had just celebrated his birthday and that summer he had married Jean Mary Askham. The records held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission show that the headstone featured a cross and “at the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember” and Jean Talbot was then of Upton.

Passenger records show that on the 2nd of October 1947 Jean Talbot left from London aboard the P & O ship, Stratheden, for Adelaide. Her occupation was listed as Secretary, and the supplied address was Wrangbrook Manor, Upton. Australian passenger lists show that Jean arrived in Freemantle, Western Australia on the 28th of October 1947, and intended to travel on to the Talbot family home, in Grange, Adelaide. Passenger lists again show a Jean Mary Talbot arriving back in London, from Adelaide via Cameroon, aboard the P & O ship Strathaird, on the 11th of December 1948. The Stratheden and Strathaird had previously been requisitioned to be used as troop ships in World War Two.

In December of 1951 Jean Talbot married Danish man Harro Steenholt Hansen. If family recollections (provided online via a shared family tree) are correct, then Harro appears to have served with the Luftwaffe in World War Two. Though this family tree does have obvious errors, so this may be incorrect. Newspaper records show that in February 1953 Harro, in line with legal requirements, published in newspapers his application to the Home Office for naturalisation.

Jean and Harro had a son, Mark William Hanson, born in 1955. Sadly Mark passed away aged just 4, on the 1st of June 1960, and was laid to rest in Moorthorpe Cemetery. Curiously, Mark was buried alongside Flight Sergeant Talbot, and as a result the headstone on Flight Sergeant Talbot’s war grave was altered to include Jean and Harro’s son, where Jean and Harro’s other son, David, who died in infancy is named on their headstone.

Harro Steanholt Hansen himself then passed away a few years later, on the 27th of July 1969 and was buried in a plot just a few graves to the left of his son, and Flight Sergeant Talbot. His probate shows that at the time of death the address supplied was Wrangbrook Manor, Upton and newspaper reports corroborate this. Newspaper reports also show that Harro was found dead, having collapsed in his car on the M1, close to Watford Gap. Jean went on to marry for a third time, and passed away in Thirsk on the 8th of September 2010.