Stanley joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and was given service number 1591676, enlisting at Weston-Super-Mere. In July 1944 he joined No.8 Air Gunnery School at RAF Evanton on the shore of the Cromarty Firth in the Scottish Highlands.
On 19 July 1944 he took-off in Avro Anson serial number NK477 on a local training flight. The Anson was an aircrew trainer for navigators, wireless operators, bomb aimers and air gunners. Tragically, the Polish pilot, Sergeant Adam Ścigalou, lost control while at an altitude of just 259 feet and dived into the ground 6 km from Evanton in the Scottish Highlands. Everyone on board was killed, including the instructor Sergeant John Edward Hills and Stanley’s fellow students Sergeants Jaroslav Kalašek (from Czechoslovakia) and Kenneth Walter Chantrell. Stanley was aged just 19.
Squadrons
No.8 Air Gunnery School (1944)
Medals
See also
