Rev Roy Muttram, Bill Lovelock, P.M. John McGeachy

Click here for a list of who's who in the above picture.

Transcript of the Memorial Service for the Crew of Neptune WX545
July 9th 1998

It has taken forty two years all but three months to come to this point. At last it is possible to place on a bleak hillside a memorial stone with the names of those nine young men whose lives were cut short when their aircraft crashed (well, they probably thought that the captain and the two flight sergeants were old men, but age is relative). For some there is the pain of old wounds reopened, for some that pain is too great and, having remade their lives they find themselves for a variety of reasons, unable to be present today. For others this is a reminder of a night when tragedy struck this community. For others still it may be that this is another stage, even the final stage in the process of healing. We find comfort in the knowledge that these, our friends and comrades will not be unremembered. In the years to come, some walker on the hill will find the stone, pause to read the names, maybe say a prayer and for a few brief moments they will live again. For yet others of us there is a reminder of our own vulnerability during long patrols over the Atlantic when weariness, violent manoeuvres, or the wrong setting on the altimeter might have condemned us to a watery grave and our loved ones to the sadness of bereavement.

Whatever our own personal story, whatever thoughts we bring with us, we are involved not only in the setting up of this memorial stone, but in that tragic incident. None of us can say "Not me chief, I didn't fly on Neptunes"! As those who have flown with 36 Squadron during its long history; those who have maintained the squadron's aircraft or done any of the many tasks concerned with squadron operations, we can and do identify with the crew of WX545 on that October day in 1956. As part of this community we can and do identify with those who searched for signs of life and found only death and destruction. As human beings with families and friends we can and do mourn with those whose lives were torn apart that night for whom the scars will always be present. Today we remember, we call to mind those parts of our own story which we share. Today our remembering is concentrated and in that sense perhaps different in kind from the remembering which is part of any meeting of former squadron members. Then our memory is, for the most part of good things, of humorous incidents and those things which, not funny at the time, have given cause for laughter afterwards. Now it is one particular sad memory which we share at first, second or even third hand. As we identify with those whom we remember, they live again.

Today we commemorate; it is an important difference. Commemoration is something positive which we do, something which links the past with the present and the future. The placing of a memorial stone at the crash site does indeed focus upon a particular event, a particular tragedy. But that event, that tragedy is much more. It is bound up with a whole generation of young men who trained and practised for that which we hoped would never happen. It is bound up with other generations of young men who opposed Zeppelin raids or carried torpedoes in the Far East, for whom inadequate equipment and inadequate training cost lives. Rudyard Kipling, in his poem "Tommy Atkins" had some hard things to say about the British attitude to those who are called, sometimes with little or no choice to pay the price of political failure. The placing of our memorial stone is our part in challenging this attitude, our part in stating that what they were doing in 1956 and what our successors are doing now is important both for those involved and those who would distance themselves from what is a constant reminder of that imperfection in society to which we give the name Sin.

All that I have said so far might have, and to a great extent has come out of my experience as a member of the Royal Air Force and that part of my service with 36 Squadron. Those who have taken on themselves responsibility for arranging this ceremony thought it important that there should be a religious element involved and that a focus for this symbol of the touching of time and eternity should be, in Bill Lovelock's words "One of us." That there are two tame parsons in the Association made this a real possibility. I regard it as a privilege to exercise what is, in its original sense, a priestly function, to act on behalf of all those involved in this ceremony. It is no less important that my colleagues, Callum O'Donell, Parish Minister and Bill Bristow, are also exercising a priestly function (even if their Reformed hackles rise at the phrase) of bridge building, of being bridges, bringing together our various communities. Severally and together building bridges, proclaiming the Christian conviction that Almighty God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer stands beside us to share our joys and sorrows and to offer us life in its fullness.

So we remember and commemorate Geoff Finding; Jim Campbell; Gil Rishton; Cyril Armstrong; Ray Fox; Roy Noble; Eric Honey; Roy Smith and Taff Lynn. We commend them and those who mourn to the care of Our Eternal Saviour and offer ourselves anew to Him in service.

Rev. Roy Muttram