Stanley was a passenger on a Bristol Blenheim Mk I, serial number L1224, of Number 12 (Pilots) Advanced Flying Unit from RAF Station Spitalgate near Grantham in Lincolnshire. The aircraft was airborne on a weather check flight at around 07:50hrs on the 5th May 1944 and was carrying a ground-crewman as a passenger. The aircraft dived into the ground for reasons unknown and caught fire at Gelston Grange near Hough-on-the-Hill in Lincolnshire. Stanley was the Son of William (deceased) and Annie Louisa Sharp (nee Rickett), of Aston Clinton; husband of Doris Sharp (nee Stratfull), of 76 Dunstable Road, Totternhoe, Bedfordshire where he lived with his wife, mother and his two children. See also: Abbott, Clifford Wilmore