Sunday lunchtime we were delighted to welcome Maureen Sullivan from Arizona, USA and two other visitors from Canada who were in England to attend the memorial service for the crew of a Halifax bomber which crashed on Cleeve Hill, near Cheltenham, in the early hours of 26 August 1944. Maureen's mother was pregnant with Maureen at the time so she never knew her father, Flight lieutenant Charles Maurice Howes, who was on board. Local organiser, Judith Wordsworth, had done some research and found that Maureen's ancestor, William Howes (Howe) had been baptised on 4 Jan 1802 at St Lawrence, Bourton on the Hill and also Abraham Howes was baptised on 2 Aug 1829 in our church. Although the records are in the archives in Gloucester, we could show them the font, the list of rectors, the Winchester Bushel measure which dates from that period and the church and churchyard. 

Naomi and Roger from St. Lawrence attended the memorial service and dedication of a stone and plaque which took place on Cleeve Hill on Bank Holiday Monday. It was a short moving service which ended with a flypast by an RAF Atlas aircraft.  Read more at https://www.itv.com/news/westcountry/2024-08-26/the-cleeve-hill-plane-crash-80-years-on-what-happened-on-fateful-day