STAGG, Bernard Percy George

Madras War Cemetery, Chennai IndiaCredit: CWGC

Flight Sergeant
230 Squadron
Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Bernard was born 1921 in Newport to Percy George & Ethel Rebecca (nee SPREADBURY) STAGG of 71 Caesars Road, Newport. He married Muriel Blanche SIMMONDS in 1941 at St. Mary’s Church in Carisbrooke, who was living at 37 Castle Road, Newport, at the time of Bernard’s death.

Bernard’s squadron was equipped with Short Sunderland flying boats, used to transport freight & casualties between Akyab & Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar). While on such a trip, on the 18th of May 1945, Bernard fell overboard & drowned. Aged 23, he is buried at the Madras War Cemetery, Chennai in India beneath a Commission Headstone, bearing the Family Inscription: “ABIDE WITH ME; FAST FALLS THE EVENTIDE; THE DARKNESS DEEPENS; LORD, WITH ME ABIDE", alongside 855 of his Second World War comrades.

Bernard is also remembered on the Newport Borough War Memorial.

CWGC Casualty Record

Cemetary

Sons & Daughters Commemorated Far From Home

Those from the Newport & Carisbrooke area who are buried or commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission outside of the area, both in the UK and in other countries.

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The image is of the Tyne Cot Military Cemetery & Memorial in Belgium.