Name: Joseph Starr (Star) Rank: Flying Officer (Pilot) Service: No. 28 OTU, Royal Air Force Service No: 53473 Date of Birth: July 19, 1915 Place of Birth: Yarmouth, NS Date of Death: June 13, 1944 Age at Death: 29 Cemetery: Nottingham (Wilford Hill) Jewish Cemetery, Nottinghamshire, United Kingdom Grave Reference: Grave 59 Commemorated on page 216 of the Second World War Book of Remembrance Displayed in the Memorial Chamber of the Peace Tower in Ottawa on September 29 The 106th name on the WWII list of the Yarmouth War Memorial (Star on the Yarmouth War Memorial) Joseph was the son of Max Star (1889-1967) and Bertha (Shankrofsky) Star (1891-1964) of Yarmouth, NS. His parents emigrated from Russia arriving in Canada in 1910. In October of 1940 he married Irene Ellen Manning at Westminster, Middlesex, UK. He was the brother of Hyman Star (1917-2007) and Sarah Star (1913-1993). Joseph travelled to England prior to the outbreak of WWII and joined the Royal Air Force. He was appointed Pilot Officer on September 21, 1943. He was the pilot of Vickers Wellington Mk.X LP397 of No.28 OTU on June 13, 1944. Some 25 minutes after it took off on a cross country exercise from RAF Castle Donington it entered a thunderstorm. Shortly afterwards the aircraft was seen to dive near vertically out of the cloud and into the ground near the village of Mayfield, a village on the outskirts of Ashbourne in Derbyshire, UK. The crew, Joseph Starr Flying Officer, RAF, Pilot, George David Wills Buchanan, Flying Officer, RCAF, Navigator, William Corley Davis Sergeant, RCAF, Bomb Aimer, William George Paterson, Sergeant, RAFVR, Air Gunner, James Joseph Urban Stevens, Sergeant, RCAF, Air Gunner, and Richard John Taylor, Sergeant, RCAF, Air Gunner, were all killed. The Mayfield Heritage Group unveiled a memorial in the churchyard of Mayfield parish church on June 12th 2011. Flying Officer Star was the first Yarmouth casualty of Jewish parentage. Sources and Information: Commonwealth War Graves Commission Canadian Virtual War Memorial findagrave.com aircrewremembered Peak District Air Accident Research