(Albert) Roland BREAKSPEAR
Memorial to Roland Breakspear and his six crew mates at St Magnus's Churchyard, Hamnavoe, Shetland. Image from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Albert Roland Breakspear (known as Roland) was born in 1922, probably in Botley. His father William was originally from Ringwood, Hampshire; he worked as an engine fitter for a boat and launch builder, possibly Salter's Steamers at Folly Bridge in Grandpont. Roland's mother Maud (née Scott) was from the Oxford city-centre parish of St Mary Magdalen; as a young woman she worked as a live-in kitchenmaid in the household of a wealthy widow in North Oxford. William and Maud had been married in the parish church in St Ebbe's in January 1914, two months before the birth of their first child, Dora. A son, William, was born in 1915 and another daughter, Ruby, in 1918. At the time of the 1921 census the family was living at 21 Poplar Road, Botley, and it is likely that that is where Roland was born, in 1922. Two more boys, David and Michael, were born in 1927 and 1932, though Michael died as an infant.
Even though Roland Breakspear did not live in the parish of St Matthew’s, he had connections there via his paternal uncle, Albert Breakspear, who lived at 202 Marlborough Road, and possibly through his father's job, if indeed he did work at Salter's. Roland was a member of the 1st Oxford Boys’ Brigade Company, which had been established in Grandpont in 1929 by the vicar of St Matthew’s Revd David Keith Stather-Hunt. The Boys’ Brigade – and the Girls’ Life Brigade – were important local institutions and generations of children were involved. Deryck Drew, another of our 24 Men of Grandpont, was also a member.
At the outbreak of war in 1939 Roland (now aged seventeen) was living at home at 3 Hurst Rise, Cumnor Hill with his parents. His father William was the manager of the Oxford Cold Storage and Ice Company on Hythe Bridge Street. In January 1940 Roland took on a job as a wireless operator with the General Post Office (GPO).
He enlisted with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve some time after April 1940, and joined 240 Squadron (a flying-boat squadron) with the rank of Sergeant, service number 1176410. He started at RAF Cardington near Bedford, and trained as a Wireless Operator and Air Gunner. He was transferred to Coastal Command and based in Lough Erne, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland.
On 19 January 1942 Roland was a member of the crew of a Catalina flying-boat which took off from its base at RAF Castle Archdale in County Fermanagh to carry out a sortie over the coast of Norway to look for and bomb the German battleship Tirpitz. During their outbound flight over the North Sea the Catalina's wings began to ice up and one of the two engines lost power. The crew jettisoned their bombs into the sea, then headed for Sullom Voe in the Shetland Isles, hoping to land there. However, no preparations had been made, no landing flares could be seen, and they were unable to contact Sullom Voe by radio. RAF Sumburgh (on the southern tip of the mainland island of the Shetlands) finally heard their radio call, and alerted Sullom Voe to the plight of the Catalina flying-boat. But the aircraft, which had been circling over the area waiting for a flare path to be laid, lost height in the snow and darkness and crashed into the hillside at Arisdale Head on the island of Yell. Seven crew members were killed (including Roland Breakspear, who was nineteen) and three survived.
Roland and his six crew mates were buried in a communal grave in St Magnus's Churchyard, Hamnavoe, on Yell, and a stone monument listing their names (above left) was erected by the island's inhabitants. Another memorial to the airmen, together with some of the plane's wreckage, marks the site of the crash.
Roland is also named (under his first name of Albert) on the WWII memorial in St Lawrence’s Church, North Hinksey, which was dedicated on Remembrance Day in 2013, and on the Oxford City WWII Roll of Honour, which is in the Church of St Michael at the Northgate on Cornmarket.
Roland’s father William died in 1966 and is buried in Botley Cemetery; his mother Maud died in 1978 and is buried in the churchyard of St Lawrence at North Hinksey.
The 1st Oxford Boys Brigade Company, 1934. Image from The Changing Faces of South Oxford and South Hinksey, Book 1, by Carole Newbigging. (Click image to close)
