barbecue and many will remember his bananas with
rum, brown sugar and cream.
He was very dependable and sincere and encouraged
many with hope, nudging them into all that life could
offer. His sons enjoyed bringing friends home because
they always knew that Tony and Susan took a keen
interest in them and left a lasting impression.
His worldly wisdom, his passion for life and that
sparkle in his eyes will be remembered by many.
Peter Lancaster (42-47), after leaving Pocklington
School, worked for Horsley Smith & Co Ltd in Hull.
He spent his working life in the timber trade apart
from doing his National Service in the RAF, spending
the last months of service in Hong Kong at the time
of the Korean War.
He married Marjorie in 1955 and transferred to the
Doncaster office for ten years and then moved to
Birmingham to open a new office and depot for the
Company.
He was a dedicated Yorkshire man and avidly followed
Hull City AFC and Yorkshire County Cricket.
He lived in Sutton Coldfield and leaves his wife of 60
years, a son Simon and daughter Sarah Jane and five
grandchildren.
Peter Lancaster (42-47),
Alan Longmore (42-47) died on 11 December 2014.
He spent his childhood and youth in Norton on Tees
and attended Pocklington School for his secondary
education. With the help of the Pocklington
staff, in particular James Eggleshaw, Alan gained a
postmastership scholarship to Merton College,
Oxford to read Classics. Alan’s father died tragically in
a bicycling accident in 1947, just before Alan went up
to Merton. Alan enjoyed his studies and his time as a
university student. After Merton Alan did his National
Service at Catterick. He worked in Signals, and was
retained "on call" for a few years subsequently. He
taught in schools for a few years, his first post being at
Marylebone Grammar School, before he moved into
Education Administration and eventually became head
of the LEA at Keighley in West Yorkshire, where he
was very happy until local government reorganisation
saw his and other authorities become part of a
much larger Bradford region. At that point he moved
to another similar post in Wolverhampton, before
retiring to Danby in the North York Moors. He loved
books, walking, choral singing (at Guisborough Parish
Church throughout a long retirement) and pipesmoking. He is survived by his wife Kathleen, three
children, 6 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren.
His great-niece and -nephews, the Micklem Cooper
family, have attended Pocklington School from 2001
to the present day.
Squadron Leader Jeff Rees (34-36), who has died
aged 94, carried out more than 60 operations with
Bomber Command and twice flew badly damaged
aircraft back to Britain.
On the night of July 15 1941, Rees was the captain
of a Wellington bomber of No 75 (NZ) Squadron
tasked with bombing targets in Duisburg. The
operation by the force of 38 bombers was disrupted
by the enemy’s concentrated air defences but Rees
managed to attack his target.
Crossing the Dutch-German border on the return
flight, Rees’s Wellington was “coned” by searchlights
and damaged by anti-aircraft fire. Almost immediately,
a night fighter attacked the damaged bomber; cannon
shells exploded in the cockpit and blew out the hatch
in the lower fuselage.
The second pilot was killed and the front gunner
severely wounded (he died in hospital). A shell splinter
temporarily blinded the rear gunner, and the navigator,
hurrying to assist him, fell through the missing hatch.
Fortunately, he had clipped on his parachute and
he landed safely to spend the next four years as a
prisoner of war.
Rees attacked Berlin on a number of occasions. On
one flight he was over the target when his Mosquito
was hit by anti-aircraft fire, which knocked out one
of the aircraft’s two engines. Rees flew the badly
damaged Mosquito back to England on one engine.
He was awarded a bar to his DFC. During the buildup to the Allied invasion in Normandy, the crews
of No 139 attacked the coastal batteries and radar
installations.
After almost 10 months of continuous operations,
Rees was rested and became a pilot instructor on
Mosquitoes before being seconded to BOAC to fly
long-range routes to the Near and Far East.
On leaving the RAF in October 1946, he was one of a
number of ex-Pathfinder pilots recruited by Air ViceMarshall Don Bennett (former commander of the
Pathfinders) to join British South American Airways
(BSAA).
The job was allocated on a “first come, first served”
basis and Rees – driving “Baby Lou”, his decrepit
Austin 7 – was the last to arrive in time to be offered
an appointment as a captain. He flew converted
Lancaster bombers and the ill-fated Avro Tudor on
routes to the Caribbean and South America.
After a seri \