Francis Wallace McKinlay
Sadly, we only know about three days in Francis McKinlay's life - when he was born, the 1921 Census and the day he died.
On 11th July 1916 he was born at 3 Kennyhill Gardens, Dennistoun. His father gave his name as Robert Cromwell McKinlay, a public school teacher (born 30 Jun 1881 in Dublin, died 4 Dec 1945 in Bearsden). His mother was Winifred Elizabeth McCulloch Grant (1881 in Glasgow - 1951 in Bearsden)
On Census Day 1921 (Sunday 19th June) the family still lived at Kennyhill Gardens, and the record shows Francis had two brothers: William James (1914-1996) and Robert Cromwell (1920-1980).
He attended Whitehill School, Whitehill Street, Dennistoun, presumably leaving in the early 1930s:
At some stage in the 1930s he joined the RAF.
On 14th May 1940 Francis was a Sergeant in the RAF, assigned to 44 Squadron based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
The squadron was equipped with Hampden bombers, which each had a four-man crew. Leslie Ashfield, Charles Crawley (navigator) and Frank Preston (wireless operator) always flew together and the air-gunner position was taken either by Francis or by Corporal Albert Kendrew.
That night, seven Hampdens were sent to bomb targets in Germany and the Netherlands, seemingly targeting railway communications. Two Hampdens were sent to bomb Breda, a town in the Netherlands close to the Belgian border that had been taken by the German advance on 12th May.
RAF Waddington to Breda
As the Germans advanced people feared Breda would be a battleground and 50,000 are estimated to have left their homes and started walking towards the Allied lines. This is commemorated in a statue in a park in Breda called De Vlucht (The Flight):
The two planes took off at 00.26 (pilot J.A. Siebert) and 00.28 (pilot Leslie Ashfield). Siebert dropped his bombs on Bread and flew back via Rotterdam, landing at Waddington at 04.35. However, nothing further was heard from Ashfield and his crew. (Martin's Aviation Pages is the authoritative site for these details.
We now know that as Ashfield's Hampden flew over Breda, it was found by three searchlights, which made it a clear target for anti-aircraft fire; a battery based at Moerdijk then shot at the plane. In addition, a German night-fighter claimed to have shot down a plane in the area. Whether it was one or the other, we do not now know but the plane crashed about 10km north of Breda at about 01.06. Presumably this is Central European Summer Time s 02.06 by British Summer Time). All four men on board were killed.
Moerdijk where the German guns were based is at the top of the map, Breda is bottom-right. The plane crashed at Terheijden with the red marker in the centre of the map.
German soldiers retrieved the bodies and buried them by the crash site:
The grave was marked with part of the tail plane of the Hampden (see the photo at the start of the post). About a year later, the bodies were moved to a local cemetery:
They are now under the care of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission:
By 1940, valuation roll records show Robert, Francis's father, living at 18 Leven Drive, Bearsden. It seems likely they moved there in the late 1930s although we do not know if Francis himself ever lived there.
Footnote
Corporal Albert Kendrew had a lucky escape, as it was Francis's turn to fly with the crew on 14th/15th May. His luck did not last. On the night of 3rd/4th June 1940 he was on a Hampden that took off from RAF Waddington, but crashed into barrage balloons over Felixstowe and crashed into the docks. Only one man was saved Albert's body was not found.
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