Farewell to Second World War veteran from Shenington who dedicated his life to serving others

Obituary for Cyril Anson

On September 19, the country said good-bye to its beloved queen, who was for many, a reassuring link to a disappearing past.

Fifteen minutes before the Queen’s funeral, Shenington too said good-bye to one of the old guard, another reassuring link to the past. A man very much cut from the same cloth as the Queen, another of the very few surviving veterans from the Second World War. He too was a man of duty and service, for whom family and faith were all important. For the Queen, her duty and service were about the country and commonwealth. For Cyril Anson it was his family, Shenington and the Church.

Cyril was born in the hamlet of Yokefleet on the banks of the River Ouse in East Yorkshire, on September 10, 1923. As the only son of a farm labourer and signalman’s daughter, he was at the opposite end of the social ladder to royalty. He went to Goole Grammar School and, if the War had not intervened, was all set to become a country policeman like his uncle. But with the outbreak of war, that was not to be and in 1942, at the age of 18, he joined the RAF.

He served as a navigator in Bomber Command in Italy, before finishing his war in Transport Command, flying to the Far East and then on the mail run to Berlin in post-war Germany. The world he experienced was a world away from his quiet, rural upbringing.

Explaining the impact the war had on her father, his daughter, Nicky said: “My mother once told me that most of my father’s sixth form joined the RAF and that my dad was one of the very few to return. Whether this is entirely true I’ll never know, but the war certainly left its mark on him and shaped who he became: a man profoundly relieved to be alive and who, in thanks, quietly dedicated much of his life to the service of others.”

After the war Cyril studied mathematics on a demob scholarship at Birmingham University, going on to work in industry. He later changed direction to become Senior Lecturer in Statistical Methods at Aston University, and then a management consultant with Urwick Orr.

He wrote several mathematics and statistics text books for non-scientists working in industry. In 1964 Cyril moved to Shenington and along with his wife Ethel (who was the Banbury Guardian Village Correspondent for more than 20 years) and became a mainstay within the village, devoting much of his life to the church and community. He was a member of the Parochial Church Council for 55 years and churchwarden for 36 years, gradually taking on ever more responsibility for Shenington church and then Alkerton church as well.

When he retired as churchwarden in 2015, aged 92, Shenington vicar Reverend John Reader paid tribute to Cyril, saying: "This is the point to say a very public 'thank you' to Cyril (and Ethel in the background) for their massive contribution to the life and work of church and community. In addition to many everyday tasks, Cyril shouldered the main responsibility for fund raising, writing grant and faculty applications, and looking after the buildings. Without his devotion to these tasks, the churches simply could not carry out the weddings, baptisms, funerals, school services and major festivals, let alone the weekly worship."

When Cyril retired, he started teaching computing at the village school and in 1986, became a school governor. It was a significant period for the school with Cyril, as treasurer, overseeing significant improvements to the old school building and the planning and construction of the new one in Stocking Lane.

Commenting on his importance to Shenington School, Nicky said: “One of my fondest memories of this period came in 2011. Dad had been a school governor for 25 years and they held a celebration for him at school assembly. He was presented with a card made by the children and a small commemorative cup, and head teacher Sarah had also had a star named in his honour: the ‘Governor Cyril’. Yes, there is a star up in the sky called Governor Cyril after my dad. Isn’t that lovely!”

As they aged, Cyril and Ethel’s role in the village gradually faded. Cyril retired as a school governor in 2016 after 30 years, and as churchwarden and from the PCC in 2015, after 50 years. Among his many other roles he was treasurer of the Village Hall Social Committee for more than 20 years, and a founding member of the Gardening Club. He was on the editorial team of the Shenington Green village magazine from its first issue and its treasurer for 24 years: a role the current editor, Robin Furneaux, only managed to wrest away from him about 18 months ago.

Like so many of his passing generation, Cyril lived a life where actions spoke louder than words. While a more modern generation might find other things to do, Cyril just got on with the work. It is thanks to him and those like him, who quietly dedicate their lives to their local communities, that villages like Shenington remain vibrant communities and not just dormitories. He understood that if you want to benefit from living in a village community, you need to contribute.

Cyril died peacefully at home on September 19, nine days after his 99th birthday. His funeral takes place on Saturday, October 8 at 1pm in Shenington Church, with a reception at The Bell.

Flying in a Wellington Bomber

The Wellington was used extensively during the Second World War for operations training at airfields in the Midlands, including RAF Edgehill (Shenington airfield), and planes from there took part in some of the mass air-raids over Germany. Cyril Anson was a navigator in a Wellington during the Italian campaign and talked with Tricia Dempsey for Shenington Green in 2017 about the experience.

Q: Who was on board?

A: 1. Pilot – captain.

2. Bomb-aimer who sat alongside the pilot, and went forward and lay down in the nose to drop the bombs.

3. Navigator who worked at a table just ahead of the astrodome, directly behind the pilot, on the port side of the plane.

4. Wireless operator who sat alongside the navigator on the starboard side of the plane.

5. Rear-gunner who was in the rear turret. (Our version of the Wellington didn’t have a front gun turret.)

Q: What was it like in the plane?

A: Very noisy and cold! We wore flying jackets and thick flying boots and had to communicate using an intercom system. We had a rule not to use the intercom unless there was something vital to say – such as the rear-gunner saying that he thought that he had seen a night fighter.

Q: What was it like navigating?

A: We had charts on which we plotted our track, and a kind of computer to work out what speed and course to set, which we asked the pilot to follow. We had a radar position-finding system called Gee but it was not very accurate when we were flying east over Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and eastern Yugoslavia.

Q: What was it like over the target?

A: On most of the bombing raids, the target was marked with coloured flares by the path-finder force who went before the main bombing raid. In every raid, we met some anti-aircraft fire containing tracer bullets, which came up from the ground like a firework display. There were searchlights over some targets and, if you were caught in a cone of searchlights, the pilot had to dive out of it and hope that the anti-aircraft fire would miss us. There were nearly always flares or fires on the ground on the big bombing raids.

Q: Where were you flying from?

A: We were flying from the Foggia plain, which is not very far above the heel of Italy. When we arrived in the summer we were living in tents, but we managed to move into a small farmhouse before the winter set in.

In the summer the weather was nearly always glorious sunshine. In the winter, we had snow and there was mud everywhere – we lived in Wellington boots except when we were flying in Wellington bombers!

Q: What training did you have?

A: I joined the Royal Air Force straight from school when I was 18. My initial training was at Glasgow University, after which I went by sea to South Africa and trained as a navigator. I then sailed through the Indian Ocean to Egypt and Palestine, for my operational training as a navigator on Wellington bombers, before being assigned to a crew. My crewmates and I were together for the tour of operations – in our case based in Italy.