Name: Brian Lambert Rowntree Rank: Leading Airman/Telegraphist Air Gunner Service Number: FX87018 Service: 833 Naval Air Squadron (NAS), Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, Aboard HMS Activity Date of Birth: June 16, 1924 Place of Birth: Middlesbrough, Yorkshire Date of Death: May 1, 1944 Age: 19 Cemetery: Manchester Southern Cemetery, Lancashire, United Kingdom Brian was the son of Sydney Braithwaite Rowntree (1894-1972) and Lillie (Richardson) Rowntree (1896-1981), and the brother of Eileen Lillie Rowntree (1918-1992) Ronald Braithwaite Rowntree (1919-1980) and Sydney B Rowntree (b. 1921). Brian’s sister married George Herbert Clough (1916-1940). George Clough (Service No. T/167027) died October 11, 1940, while serving with the 29th Station Transport Company of the Royal Army Service Corps. Brian enlisted in the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm and was allocated the service number FX 87016, a number assigned to aircrew trainees entering the Telegraphist Air Gunner branch during the latter part of that year. Following enlistment, he would have completed initial naval training in the United Kingdom before being selected for aircrew service. In early 1943, Brian was posted to HMS Daedalus at Lee-on-Solent for Telegraphist Air Gunner ground training. This phase included wireless telegraphy, Morse code, aircraft systems, and air gunnery instruction. He was then assigned to the Royal Navy’s overseas training program under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan and travelled to Canada in March 1943. Brian trained at RCAF Station Yarmouth (East Camp) in Nova Scotia as a member of Telegraphist Air Gunner Course 48A. Training at Yarmouth included airborne wireless operation, defensive gunnery, navigation assistance, and anti-submarine procedures. His course remained in Canada for approximately ten months. After returning to the United Kingdom in December 1944, he was posted to 833 Naval Air Squadron, and served on HMS Activity. On May 1, 1944, Brian Rowntree was serving as the Telegraphist Air Gunner in a three man crew on Swordfish II (NE923) coded G. The Pilot was Temp Sub-Lieutenant (A) Leslie Frank Hayward, Royal New Zealand Naval Volunteer Reserve, age 24. and the Observer was Temp Sub-Lieutenant (A) David James Hanson, Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, UK, Age 22. During the three-month period leading up to the Normandy invasion, Allied and Axis naval and air units engaged in a series of clashes in the waters off France. On May 1st the crew of Swordfish II (NE923) were involved in an attack against a beached German Elbing-Class torpedo boat near Île Vierge (Virgin Island) located 1.5 km off the northwest coast of Brittany, France. They failed to return to HMS Activity. The body of Brain Rowntree was the only one later recovered. Brian Rowntree was nineteen years old at the time of his death. He was interred alongside his brother-in-law, George Clough, and the two share a joint grave marker.