Forename: Albert William Ernest
Surname: Humphries
Rank: Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Air Force
Institution: St Paul’s Practising School
Albert William Ernest Humphries, son of Ernest and Amelia Humphries, was born on 2 January 1920. He lived at 3 Marlborough Place, Townsend Street then 136 Whaddon Road, Cheltenham. Albert was educated at St Pauls Practising School and at Cheltenham Grammar School between 1926 – 1935 and was a keen cricketer. He joined the clerical staff of the Cheltenham District Gas Company, qualifying with First Class Honours in Gas Fitting in 1940.
Albert volunteered to join the RAF undertaking aircrew training in South Africa under Empire Air Training Scheme. On returning to England, he was posted to Volunteer Reserve, 139 (Jamaica) Squadron, operating from Bristol Blenheim Bombers from Oulton.
Sergeant Humphries’s unit was engaged in anti-shipping patrols over the North Sea, becoming one of three aircraft lost without trace on the 15 October 1941 He was aged 21. Albert is commemorated on the RAF Memorial to the missing, at Runnymede and on the Borough of Cheltenham War Memorial, The Chapel of Salem Baptist Church, and the grave of his father at Cheltenham Borough Cemetery.