Flight Sergeant (Wireless Operator / Air Gunner)
John George Ypres Boyle

Biography

John George Ypres Boyle, “Jackie” to his family, was born on the 18th of February 1916 in Kentisbury, North Devon. The eldest son of John George and Rosalie May Boyle he had ten siblings, an older sister Annie May together with Winifred, Doris, Rosalie, Reginald, Ronald, Kenneth, Cyril, Clifford and Joan. Given the middle name Ypres because that was where his father was serving in WW1 at the time of his birth, Jackie moved with his parents and elder sister to Swansea in Wales when the war ended and it was there that the family settled. 

After leaving School, Jackie found work as a Colliery Weigher at the Myndd Newydd Colliery but enlisted into the Royal Air Force on the 17th January 1939. After initial training at RAF Cardington, he joined 166 Squadron which became 10 Operational Training Unit at Abingdon, Oxfordshire and was trained as a Wireless Operator / Air Gunner. He was retained by 10 OTU and served both at Abingdon and nearby Stanton Harcourt training other aircrew and logging up over 1300 hours flying time. Well-liked by his fellow airmen, Jackie was an avid reader of “The Saint” series of books by Leslie Charteris and was given copies by his colleagues signed to him as his RAF nickname, Taffy. Jackie had a good singing voice and on his last home leave his sister said that he stood up in the local Pub to sing the Hymn “Jerusalem” to the other customers. He knew he was being transferred to another Squadron and would be training for flying in four engined heavy bombers which he was not looking forward to. 

Jackie was transferred to 1483 Flight at the beginning of May 1942, three weeks before the crash of T2802. After his death he was laid to rest in Cwmgeli Cemetery in Swansea.

He was posthumously mentioned in despatches on the 11th of June 1942 and is commemorated on the Swansea War Memorial.

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