1808996 RAF - Flight Engineer
Dennis was born on October 8th, 1923, in Ladysmith Terrace, Ushaw Moor, Durham, the only son of Dorothy and Arthur Belshaw. He had an older sister, Dorothy, who sadly died at the age of eight, when Dennis was six, and a younger sister,Vera, who was born not long after Dorothy's death. His father diedwhen he was eight years old, and the family moved to Bearpark.
He left school at 14 years of age and was a delivery boy for a local shop, until starting work in the store at 16, with a view to eventually training as a manager.
He joined the RAF in 1941 at the age of 18, and received his wings in 1943. He and the crew flew many sorties together, until that fateful day in June when they were shot down over Belgium. After initially receiving help from the resistance, Dennis was eventually was captured, and was a POW in Stalag Luft 3 until the end of the war.
On being demobbed, Dennis undertook a government training programme in place for returning men and women, and he chose to become a painter and decorator, eventually becoming a sales executive in later years. He married Lettie just after the war, and they had an only daughter, Anne. They also had two grandchildren, Richard and Elizabeth,to whom Dennis was to speak of his time in the war, the only time he did so in any detail. Dennis sadly died in his late sixties.
via Peter Knox in Belgium - Knox Family Chronicles Knoxetal.
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