Sgt Alan Blacklock Lattimer

Alan Blacklock Lattimer was a Freemason and member of Lodge Temperance 2557 who served in the 2nd World War. A letter to the Provincial Grand Secretary of Northumberland from WBro John Sowerby, Secretary, and dated 7th November 1947 attached a list of the names and service of forty three Brethren and Brother Alan is shown serving in the Royal Airforce.

At the Lodge Temperance 2557 meeting held at the Royal Assembly Rooms, Westgate Road, on 19th October 1936 Alan was proposed by Wbro Thomas Walmsley and seconded by Bro Davos Crow, JD, as a fit and proper person to be made a Freemason.

He was a 25 year old Gas Co. Official residing at 220, Wingrove Avenue, Newcastle Upon Tyne. A successful ballot was held the following month on 16th November 1936 and he was initiated into the mysteries and privileges of Ancient Freemasonry on 15th February 1937. He was passed to the second or Fellowcraft degree on 26th May 1937 and raised to the sublime degree of Master Mason on 18th October 1937 by Wbro Wilfred J. Allen, PM, assisted by Wbro J. R. Routledge

Unfortunately, military service records after 1920 are only available to proven next of kin but there is information in the public domain. It’s unknown when Bro Alan joined the Royal Air Force although it’s likely around September 1939 as in the 1939 register taken on 29th September his occupation is shown as a clerk with a gas company and Observer in the RAF 755367. By the end of 1940 he was with no. 37 Squadron as a Sergeant Observer.

No.37 Squadron was reformed in 1937 as a heavy bomber squadron equipped with the Harrow bomber. It received more modern aircraft, in the shape of the Vickers Wellington I on May 1939 and the Vickers Wellington 1C on October 1940 and in November 1940 the squadron was transferred to Egypt, via RAF Station Luqa on the island of Malta, from where it carried out a number of sorties.

Luqa was the headquarters of the British Royal Air Force Mediterranean Command during WW2. It remained a RAF base after the war, but the airfields increasingly became shared with civilian flights. RAF departed the base in 1979 and the site is now the Malta International Airport.

On the 16th November 1940 the Vickers Wellington IC No. R3179 with 6 crew, including Bro Alan, took off on a day raid from Luqa, Malta, for a mission to Durazzo, Alblania and was shot down near Shavnik, Montenegro
The six crew were:

  • 748754 Sgt Bernard William GREEN – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
  • 751591 Sgt John Robert BARNES – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
  • 938208 Sgt James Geoffrey Gleadall BUTLER – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
  • 755367 Sgt Alan Blacklock LATTIMER – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
  • 754735 Sgt Gordon Atkinson ROSS – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia
  • 755595 Sgt John George Davison WILSON – killed – Belgrade War Cemetery, Serbia

They were buried in a communal grave at Piroski Monastery but after the war re-interred in Belgrade War Cemetery.

Bro Alan was born on 19th January 1911 in Newcastle Upon Tyne. His father, Joseph Blacklock Lattimer born 1861 in Nenthead, Cumbria, was in the drapery business, initially as a draper’s assistant and later as a draper’s commercial traveller, employed by the Co-operative Wholesale Company on Waterloo Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne. He first married Alice Mabb from Bridport, Dorset in 1884 in Bridport and they had at least four children including:

  • John Edgar (1885 – 1885)
  • James Wilfred b 1886
  • John Edgar (1889-1869)
  • Joseph Charles (1892-1956)

Sadly, Alice died in 1894 and Joseph remarried to Margaret Eleanor Pattison, born 1869 from Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, in 1897 and went on to have at least six more children including:

  • Robert Pattison (1898-1967)
  • Matthew Havelock (1901-1972)
  • Mona Eleanor (1902-1975)
  • Jessie Blacklock (1904-1904)
  • Earnest Blacklock (1905-1907)
  • Alan Blacklock (1911-1940)

It’s worthy of note that Joseph had been a member of Lodge Temperance 2557. On May 20th 1901 Joseph, 49 years a draper residing 90 Jefferson Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, was proposed by Bro John Armstrong PM Treasurer and seconded by Bro Charles Pemberton PM. A successful ballot was held on June 17th 1901 and he was initiated into the Mysteries and Privileges of Ancient Freemasony on the same night. He was passed to the Second or Fellowcraft degree on July 15th 1901 and raised to the Sublime Degree of a Master Mason on October 3rd 1901.

29 year old Bro Alan married Betty Hobbs from Newcastle on 1st June 1940 at St. Cuthbert’s, Church of Scotland, Prestwick, Ayrshire by the RAF Chaplain Rev. Luke McQuitty, BA. Betty, aged 23 born on 20th January 1917, was the only daughter of Annie Mary Hobbs (nee Thorpe) and David Hobbs both of Newcastle-on-Tyne.

From the Newcastle Evening Chronicle 3rd June 1940 –

On Bro Alan’s death he left his wife Betty £633 which in today’s money is around £31,000. Betty went on to marry David C Browne in Newcastle upon Tyne in 1946.

Bro Alan is commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commision website which you can see here