Story of Frederick William DOODEY (Royal Air Force)

online resource

posted on 2024-06-05, 18:03 authored by Their Finest Hour Project Team

Frederick was born in Worcester on 18 June 1912 and attended the Royal Grammar School at Worcester. He served in the Royal Air Force, enlisting as an apprentice at the age of 16 years. At one point, he was stationed at Bicester and this is where he met his wife, who lived in Bicester (her elder brother was killed in WW1). They married in Bicester in the Methodist church in 1935.

Frederick did his technical training at Halton. He died on 11 November 1939, when he was a Flight Sergeant in a Blenheim bomber squadron. Three aircrafts took off from RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. On the way back to base, two of the aircrafts accidentally collided in low cloud.

Frederick's aircraft crashed in the sea and no bodies were recovered. Frederick's widow never talked much about the war. She eventually remarried another airman. All the objects were discovered in a tin after her death.

History

Item list and details

1. Poem which Frederick wrote to his wife. 2. Miscellaneous photographs of Robert whilst he was in the RAF plus one small photo of his wedding day and one photo of his wife. 3. Identity card indicating he served with 114 Squadron. 4. Service record 5. Papers relating to death 6. Birth and marriage certificates (When he married, Robert was a Leading Aircraftman)

Person the story/items relate to

Frederick William Doodey

Person who shared the story/items

Robert David Lang

Relationship between the subject of the story and its contributor

Great Uncle

Type of submission

Shared at Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum, Oxfordshire on 1 April 2023.

Record ID

91748 | WOO008

Usage metrics

Licence

CC BY 4.0