WAR veteran Trevor Jenkins, inset below, was born on June 4, 1923 and lived in the Cardiff area until the age of 15 when he was enlisted in the Royal Air Force as an engineering apprentice at RAF Halton.
The outbreak of war curtailed Trevor’s training and he was posted to South Africa to assemble and maintain Miles Master training aircraft used to train RAF pilots.
As Bomber Command losses escalated in 1943 volunteers were sought to convert to aircrew. Trevor volunteered and returned to the UK.
On completion of his flight engineer’s training, Trevor was posted to RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire and began his first operational tour in July 1944.
On July 7, 1944 Trevor’s aircraft was returning from a bombing mission to Caen when the Lancaster was hit by enemy flak and badly damaged.
By the time pilot John Oram ordered the crew to bale out the aircraft was over the channel and on fire.
John, who was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, tried to turn the Lancaster back towards the French coast before baling out.
This action was ultimately unsuccessful. Sadly the two gunners perished when the aircraft crashed into the channel.
But Trevor and the remaining crew were picked up by allied ships. On August 31, 1944, during a bombing raid on a German rocket site at St Recquier, Trevor was injured by shrapnel.
After recovering he rejoined his crew and on October 14, 1944 took part in two bombing missions on the German city of Duisburg.
Trevor completed his first tour of 30 bombing missions on December 29, 1944. His second tour entailed operational flying from RAF Ibsley. He was then posted to the Far East, returning to the UK in late 1945.
After being posted to the Bombing Ballistics Unit at RAF Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, Trevor met young nurse Hannah Scales. The couple married in Ipswich on August 14, 1948.
Trevor was demobbed in 1950 and resumed his aircraft engineering career. In 1955 he and his young family relocated to the VAAC base at Hurn airport where he became involved in the construction and delivery of the VA Viscount and BAC One-Eleven aircraft. His final role was as flight shed manager at BAC Hurn.
Trevor enjoyed his retirement on the south coast until Hannah tragically passed away in 2011. It is fitting that he survived to witness the unveiling of the Bomber Command Memorial in Green Park, London.
Trevor died at the age of 89 and is survived by his son Paul and granddaughter Claire
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