BRIGG MONUMENT: FLYER STANLEY'S NAME WILL JOIN 'THE FEW' FROM RAF ON WAR MEMORIAL

The forthcoming addition of Flt Sgt Stanley Cross's name to the Roll of Honour on the Monument in Brigg will make him only 'The Few' RAF aircrew member to be commemorated on our local war memorial. 

Flt Sgt Cross, of Coastal Command, was killed during a mission over the sea in a bomber on April 14, 1941, aged 35.
Archive research undertaken in Brigg, recently drawn to the attention of the Town Council, has resulted in a decision to add his name to one of the plaques on the memorial as soon as this can be arranged.
Following this decision-making meeting, Brigg Blog made a special visit to study the names of 'The Fallen' already inscribed. Although there are many from the Army and some listed in a Navy section, there are only a few RAF flyers honoured, judging by the men's ranks that accompany their names.
They are Flt Sgt J.D. Dodds, Flt Sgt F.P.C. King, Sgt (Pilot) C.P. Longbottom, Flt Sgt D. Stables and Flt Sgt K.M. Taylor.
Fortunately, there is a suitable space available on the plaque which lists all their names, in a column headed 1939-1945, to add Flt Sgt Cross (see picture above).
Josie Webb, whose researches showed Flt Sgt Cross to have been born in Brigg, said his parents and family left the town around 1919/1920 - their butcher's business at 18 Wrawby Street being bought by the Waters family.
The Cross family moved to Nettleton and had the Salutation Inn for a number of years.
Stanley joined the RAF on July 12, 1927. He married Minna Belning in 1936; a nurse, she was the daughter of a German tailor who came to England in the 1870s, Josie has discovered.
Stanley's mother's parents were called Campion and came from Elsham. They had a butcher's shop at 58 Wrawby Street (now the pet shop).
Josie says it is fascinating how people belonging to families in the same line of business married each other.
In a feature article in the next issue of Brigg Matters magazine, she will be looking at the history of 53 Wrawby Street and the families and businesses connected with it from the 1840s.  This is a building which has seen many varied changes.
Josie wonders if any of Flt Sgt Cross's relatives still in the Brigg area.
This set us thinking, as our maternal grandmother was a Cross (born in the early 1900s); her father ad a small farm beyond the northern end of Grammar School Road, Brigg. He was still farming in the 1930s and possibly into the 1940s.
As a youngster we heard about a number of distant relatives called Cross, although we can't recall a Stanley being mentioned.

 

UPDATE,  November 7, 2021: Sgt F. Parkin (mentioned on our memorial, as a former Brigg resident) also served with the RAF, a family member has emailed us to say, as well as providing some helpful links to relevant web articles. Sgt Parkin was killed when Beaufort AW293 crashed on 17th May 1942 while attacking the Prinz Eugen.
This a link to AW293 - http://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=AW293
This is a link to the attack -  http://www.aw288.net/prinzeugen.htm
This is a link to the crews - Sgt Parkin being bottom row, fourth from the right - http://www.aw288.net/crews.htm
This is a link to an account given to the BBC by the only survivor - https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/70/a4036970.shtml