Remembering his father, Neville Thompson writes > I passed through Church Fenton in North Yorkshire the other day and it reminded me of my father’s connection with the village. My father, Sidney Leonard Thompson, was based at RAF Church Fenton: he was an aircraftman working on fighters.  It was there that he met my mother, Norma, a Leeds lass. When they married in Leeds, three of the fighters flew low over the church. On one occasion, according to my grandmother, he was bombed out at Biggin Hill and arrived back in Leeds with just the clothes he stood up in.

My father died in 1956 when I was aged 8 so I had little time to have a mature relationship with him.

I do remember the pride he had in his Squadron (thought to be No.25 Squadron – Throughout the Second World War, the unit flew both bombers and escorted bombers.)  I was always briefed to watch out for them in the early BBC tv series “War in the Air”.  Mother told me in later years that Dad was moved to the New Forest, near the South Coast in 1944.  When my mother went down to see him in early June, Dad’s Commanding Officer told her to “Go home”.  It turned out he was part of the D-Day invasion force.

I believe he was involved in the progress across Europe and was one of the team that liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.