Pilot Officer Herbert George Haddrell was born in 1913 and grew up in Derry Hill, Wiltshire.

On 15th October 1944 he was at the controls when his Halifax aircraft took off from Sandtoft on a night cross-country training flight.

While flying at 12,000 feet, the port inner engine caught fire and the crew were unable to quell, or control, the flames as they spread towards the fuselage.

Three crew members managed to bale out from the aircraft but four of the crew (including Herbert George aged 30) stayed with the aircraft as the rear gunner who had difficulty in escaping from his turret.

The Halifax smashed into the heavily wooded Copreston Fell on Glendhu Hill in Kielder Forest - a wooden cross marks the spot. Herbert's body was returned home to Derry Hill and buried at Christ Church. George’s name is engraved on the Derry Hill war memorial.