Public Contributions:

Submitted by: Joss Leclercq

Relationship to casualty: No relationship

I'm an aviation historian, as a hobby. My research area is northern France, near the Belgian border and the Channel. One of the long term projects I had was the commemoration of a RNZAF Spitfire pilo...t, namely Sgt Godfrey Alan McKOY, service number 414651, who was killed in action on 26th January 1943. He was flying with No. 64 Squadron and was shot down by Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland of II./JG 26, crashing in the village of Ruminghem, north of St Omer. He's buried in St Omer (Longuenesse) souvenir cemetery. CWGC register state he was the son of Charles Lawrence Herbert and Ethel May McKoy (née Allan) from Auckland. I did some online genealogical research. I found that they were four children, Godfrey nicknamed "Bill", Lawrence Andrew, Ivan and Malcolm. Back in 2000 I had copied his short bio details during my first visit in NZ, and I know he was born on 1st September 1920 in New Plymouth. But it seems the parents moved to Auckland later on. Despite the lack of support of the people in Ruminghem, we have been given permission to put a plaque on the wall of small chapel, not far from the crash site, in a wood. We wanted to organise this on 26th January 2013 but the total silence of the Mayor of that village forced us to postpone. It is now our intention to put this plaque on Sunday 26th January 2014. [The McKoy family in New Zealand has since been contacted and the memorial service has been held - NZWGT] Read More

Submitted by: Yvan Delmotte

Relationship to casualty: I live by the crash site

Pictures of the memorial for Godfrey Alan McKoy near the sire of his crash.