Graham Leslie Parish

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Sergeant Graham Leslie Parish of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve was posthumously awarded the George Cross for "gallantry of the highest order". He was the navigator on a plane which crashed after attempting to return to base after an abortive take off in Sudan on the 16th of September 1942. Most of the crew managed to get clear as the bomber burst into flames but one man had suffered two broken legs and was trapped. The bomber was engulfed and neither Parish or the passenger survived but when their charred bodies were recovered it was clear that Parish had carried him eight yards from the blocked emergency door to the rear turret in the hope of rescuing him, rather than save himself by climbing out through the astrohatch. He had been born on the 29th of August 1912. Notice of his award appeared in the London Gazette of the 2nd of April 1943. [1]