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Sergeant Peter Buckby was a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 75 (Royal New Zealand Air Force) Squadron who was killed in action on Sunday 30 November 1941, aged 21 years old. He is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, the Burton Latimer Memorial and on the Lockheed Sports and Social Club Roll of Honour.
Peter was born on 6 Mar 1920, the son of Arthur Buckby (1877- 1952) a boot and shoe manufacturer, and Harriet Wesley Page (1882-1938). They had married in 1901 and brought their family up in Burton Latimer, Northamptonshire. Peter’s siblings were Edith Wesley Buckby (1910-2000), Arthur William Buckby (1912-1997), Philip Buckby (1913-2006), Paul Geoffrey Buckby (1917-2009) and Noel Buckby (1923-1944).
Family home life changed after Peter’s mother died in 1938. Edith, the eldest child had already left home in 1835 when she married Ernest William Heath (1908-1958). By 1939, they had moved to 26b Kenilworth Road, Leamington Spa. Ernest worked as a gasfitter and Edith carried out military service, working as a Nursing Auxiliary Reserve. Noel, Edith’s youngest brother also lived with them and was employed as a Drawing Office clerk.
In 1939, Thomas Buckby employed a housekeeper at his home at 39 Station Road, Burton Latimer to look after his four sons and himself. Paul and Arthur worked in the shoe industry as a clicker in a boot factory, and as a boot and shoe operator respectively, whilst Peter and Philip were employed as clerks in a Transport Company.
Burton Latimer Football Temperance Society. Back Row Right Arthur Buckby.
Like their father, a member of the Burton Latimer Temperance Football Club in 1894, they were keen sportsmen. Arthur, Phil and Peter regularly played in the local cricket team and at the Annual Burton Latimer Feast fixture in 1939.
After this, Peter relocated to Leamington Spa where his sister and younger brother were living to take up employment at the Lockheed Hydraulic Brake Company.
Sergeant Peter Buckby served as an air gunner in Bomber Command in the RAFVR 75 (Royal New Zealand Air Force) Squadron, based at RAF Feltwell, Norfolk. On 30 Dec 1941, his Wellington IC, Z1099 AA- was part of a contingent of 50 aircraft on a successful bombing raid over Emden, Germany. However, on its return, the plane was shot down, near to Schiermonnikoog, Netherlands in the Wadden Sea and all six crew were lost.
Wellington IC
Peter’s death was registered in Northampton. Probate did not take place until the end of the war on 22 Oct 1945 for Peter and Noel who left effects of £166 10 2d and £801 19s 7d respectively to their father.
Peter’s brother, Paul Geoffrey Buckby was a Private (Service No. 5286778) enlisted with the Northamptonshire Regiment on 15 Feb 1940, and was discharged on 30 Jun 1959. His youngest brother, Sergeant Noel Buckby (Service No. 1580378), also an Air Bomber was killed on 15 Oct 1944, shot down by naval flak near Lutetsburg, 2 Miles East of Norden during a raid on Wilhelmshaven. His military base was at Tuddenham, Suffolk and he served with 90 Squadron, Bomber Command on a Lancaster 1. He was buried in Sage War, Cemetery, Germany. He is also commemorated on the Burton Latimer Memorial.
Peter and Noel Buckby, Burton Latimer, Kettering War Memorial. (War Memorials Online)
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Additional sources of information
Wellington I 30 Nov 1941 https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/53050
Aviation Safety Net
Northampton Mercury
Forces War Records
UK & Ireland Find a Grave
UK and Allied Countries, Index of International Bomber Command Losses, 1936-1966
UK, World War II Index to Allied Airmen Roll of Honour, 1939-1945
