Remembering Lewis Randall Barber (1923 – 1944)

As we remember those who gave their lives in the various theatres of war, this post takes a look the only known combatant from Tapton to have lost his life during either of the two world wars.

Lewis Randall Barber (1923 – 1944) is Tapton’s only known combatant to have lost his life during either of the two world wars. He has been largely overlooked in local remembrance events as there is neither public war memorial nor place of worship in Tapton.  And although Tapton was incorporated into the borough of Chesterfield in 1920, Lewis is not recorded on any public memorial in the town, as there were just too many casualties from the extensive borough for all of them to be recorded on a single memorial. Never-the-less, he is not forgotten and is recorded on memorials elsewhere.

Lewis was the elder of two sons born to Isaac James Barber and Brimington-born Olive Randall. Isaac, who was born in Calow in1900, joined the Royal Flying Corps as a pilot cadet towards the end of the First World War and was training as a pilot in Egypt when the war ended. When the Hollingwood estate was built from the mid 1920s, Isaac established himself as a newsagent and sub-postmaster in the parade of shops on the corner of Private Drive and Hollingwood Crescent. This was just a lock-up shop without living accommodation, but the Barber family home address is not known.

At the start of the 1934 school year Lewis became a pupil at Netherthorpe Grammar School, so the family were most likely living within the school’s catchment area at the time. By 1936 the family had moved to Park View, 10 Paxton Road, Tapton. Lewis left Netherthorpe at the end of the 1939 school year and then spent two years at Chesterfield Technical College, before starting work as a Post Office sorting clerk and telegraphist at Chesterfield.

He was a member of the Chesterfield Post Office platoon of the Home Guard and the Air Training Corps before, in November 1941, joining the RAF Volunteer Reserve. So, Lewis was following in his father’s footsteps both at the Post Office and in the RAF.

By July 1943 Lewis had completed his RAF training in Canada, as a bomb aimer, and in February 1944 he was posted to the newly-formed 578 squadron at RAF Burn, near Selby with the rank of sergeant. The squadron flew the huge four-engined Halifax bomber which required a crew of seven: pilot, navigator, bomb aimer, wireless operator, flight engineer, mid-upper gunner and rear gunner.

On the night of 20/21 July 1944, 26 Halifax bombers of 578 Squadron took off from Burn to attack the German synthetic oil refinery at Bottrop in the Rhine Valley. Four aircraft were shot down by the enemy but six crew members managed to parachute to safety, four to be made prisoner of war. Two further aircraft managed to return within a few minutes flying time of Burn but tragically collided in mid air and crashed to earth at Balkholme, near Howden, with the loss of all crew. Lewis Randall Barber was in one of these two aircraft. Thirty-six aircrew were killed that night, the worst night in the squadron’s 14-month history (during which time a total of 219 aircrew were lost).

Lewis’s body was recovered from the crash site and his funeral service was held on 26 July at Saltergate Wesleyan Chapel, where the family worshipped (and where his parents had married). He is buried in Brimington cemetery, his RAF gravestone bearing the inscription ‘In loving memory of our dear son’.

Lewis is remembered on memorials at Chesterfield Royal Mail sorting office, Netherthorpe School, Burn Methodist Church, Selby Abbey and the crash site at Balkholme.

The plaque now at Chesterfield Royal Mail sorting office (to which there is no public access) was originally unveiled and dedicated in the Chesterfield postmaster’s office on Remembrance Sunday, 12 November, 1950. Lewis’s parents were present at the ceremony. The plaque was destined to be hung above the new Post Office counter in 1951.

At Netherthorpe School, Lewis has a page in his memory in a roll of honour kept in the Old School of 1572.

A 578 Squadron memorial in the Methodist Chapel, Burn, comprises a wall-mounted array of eleven engraved stainless steel panels, giving 578 Squadron history and naming each of the 219 airmen who flew out from Burn, never to return. It was dedicated on 16 May, 1999.

At Selby Abbey, which was surrounded by 14 airfields during the Second World War, a memorial book to the 219 casualties of 578 squadron was dedicated in 1996. It is on permanent display in a glass case and abbey staff will turn it to any airman’s page on request.

A public memorial depicting two interlocked Halifax bombers on a downward plunge, mounted on a tall tubular column, stands close to the site at Balkholme where the two aircraft returning from the Bottrop operation of 20/21 July 1944 collided in mid air and fell to earth. It names all 14 crew members who died and was dedicated on 15 October 2005.

On 30 December 2007 a metal detectorist found a 500lb bomb at the Balkholme site. On 4 January 2008 army bomb disposal experts detonated the bomb with a controlled explosion.

We hope this post has helped us to remember Lewis, who is not forgotten. He, like many, served his country and made the ultimate sacrifice so that we may enjoy the freedoms of today.