This post is one in a series of posts on the crash of an Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Z9362, which crashed into the sea 2-miles from Saltcoats Harbour on the 2nd of May, 1943.
Sergeant Ernest Jack Beer (Service Number 1600187, Wireless Operator, aged 29)
Sergeant Beer was a pipe and gas fitter when the 1939 Register of every civilian in Great Britain and Northern Ireland was recorded, and he lived with his wife Lillian Mabel Beer.
Enlistment Information in the International Bomber Command Centre Losses Database at the link https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/ and the RAF Casualty File Records show Sergeant Beer’s trade as ‘Navigator’. However, his gravestone describes him as ‘Wireless Operator’. The reason for the difference has not been identified.
Currently there is no photograph available of Sergeant Beer. He was 29 years old at the time of his death. Lillian later went on to remarry, with an amendment to the 1939 Register showing her surname changing to Marshall.
He is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in England.
A photograph of his grave can be found HERE at findagrave.com
These posts were researched and kindly contributed by John & Ian McCallum and Sandra Colley, with support from Flying Officer David McKay of 1138 (Ardrossan) Squadron Air Training Corps and Paul Coffey, President of the Royal British Legion Scotland Saltcoats, Ardrossan and Stevenston Branch.