Name: Norman Spray Rank: Sergeant Service Number: 1178776 Service: 12 Squadron, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve Date of Birth: June 30, 1920 Place of Birth: Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England Address at Enlistment: Wollaton, Nottinghamshire, England Date of Death: April 29, 1942 Age: 21 Cemetery: Kiel War Cemetery, Germany Grave: 1, Row D, Grave 3 Norman Spray was the brother of Stanley Eric Spray, a Digby Nova Scotia resident, who died July 23, 1945, serving in the Canadian Army in WWII. Stanley moved to Canada at the age of 14 through an assisted juvenile emigration and farming program, but Norman grew up with his parents in Nottinghamshire, England. Norman was the son of Edgar Spray (1881-1957) and Edith May (Dean) Spray (1884-1975), of Wollaton in Nottinghamshire. Norman’s father was a colliery bank foreman in mining, and his mother was employed as a lace finisher. His siblings were Edith May Spray (1904-1970), Beatrice Spray (1906-1934), Ethel Spray (1909- 2002), Stanley Spray (1913-1945), and Hilda Spray (1914-1998). Norman was educated at the Cottesmore School in Nottingham, and continuation studies at evening classes at University College Nottingham, which enabled him to qualify as a pilot. Before joining the RAF, he served with Messrs. W. H. Radford and Son, consulting civil engineers, of Nottingham. After enlistment and training, Norman joined the Royal Air Force’s 12 Squadron. Norman wrote his mother just before he took off on a raid over Germany, “My only regrets are the people I shall leave behind, the wonders I have not seen, and the things I have not experienced. But I am comforted by the knowing that the tight little isle is worth fighting for and I can think of no better way than to go down flying.” He was stationed at RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire with Bomber Command’s 12 Squadron and was killed in action when Vickers Wellington Mk II medium bomber Z8342 (markings PH-Z) with a six man crew was shot down in the target area during a raid on Kiel, Germany. In addition to Norman, the other 5 crew lost were: Sergeant Robert George Gordon RAAF (Service No. 404865), Pilot, Grave: 1. D. 5 Sergeant Alan Robertson Holmes (Service No. 928689), Observer, Grave 1. D. 4 Sergeant Colin Black Climie (Service No. 1016825), Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, Grave 1. D. 6-7 Sergeant Walter Laurence Munns (Service No. 1186623), Wireless Operator/Air Gunner, Grave 1. D. 6- Sergeant William Lloyd Huxley (Service No. 939428), Air Gunner, Grave 1. D. 2 The crew were initially buried in the local Naval Garrison Cemetery (Nordfriedhof Kiel), the old garrison cemetery for the German Navy in Kiel. After the war they were reinterred in Kiel War Cemetery just next to the old garrison cemetery.

Source: Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave