[Feedback]

[Site Map]

[Contact Us]

Fallen Local Airmen Remembered at Home 60 Years Later

Contact: Earl Bousquet

Thursday, July 15, 2004 - It’s been six decades, but four St. Lucian airmen whose planes were shot down in 1943 during World War II will finally be honoured at home, thanks to the efforts of a British ex-soldier.

Hugh Terrence Etienne, Denis Claude Desmond DuBoulay, Henry Eugene Middleton Dulieu and David Shingleton-Smith were all airmen with the British Royal and Royal Canadian Air Forces and all died in action when their war planes were shot down over Europe in 1943.

These St. Lucians died young (Etienne was 21, DuBoulay 20, Dulieu 34 and Shingleton-Smith 19) but they never received a funeral. That’s about to change however, with an appropriate tribute planned for this weekend to honour them.
 

Thanks to Martin Thompson, a member of the Royal British Legion who did the research on the four fallen St. Lucian airmen, information has been unearthed that sheds more light on exactly when they died and where they are buried. (One has no marked grave, one was buried in a mass grave and two are buried in a Commonwealth War Cemetery in Berlin.)
 

With assistance from Mr Thompson’s close friend Sonia George and support from the local Ex-Services League, a special service will be held in their memory at the Minor Basilica (Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception) at 7:30 am on Sunday, July 18.
 

After the mass, a memorial ceremony will take place at the cenotaph on Derek Walcott Square, where Mr Thompson, in the presence of relatives of the deceased and local war veterans, will lay wreaths and give a citation in recognition of the four fallen fighters.
 

Apart from relatives and friends, members of the public are also invited to attend.

 

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Search 2004 Press Releases ] [Site Help]

© 2004 Government Information Service. All rights reserved.

Read our privacy guidelines.