LEATHERLAND Douglas

Awarded A.F.C.

Douglas Leatherland was the only son of Joseph and Edith Leatherland of 61, Sedgeley Road, Wolverhampton. He attended Worcester Royal Grammar School from 1931 to 1934. After leaving school he won the Worcester Empire Scholarship, which allowed him to study engineering at Loughborough College where he gained a BSc, later becoming an associate member of the Institute of Civil Engineers. He lived at Great Malvern with his wife and two children and after spending 12 months in the Worcestershire County Surveyor’s Department, he became 2nd Bridge Assistant in the West Riding of Yorkshire. After joining the RAF he became a pilot and was twice mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. On the night of 20th/21st April 1944 he took off from RAF Coningsby as the pilot of a Lancaster bomber on a mission to bomb the railway yards at La Chapelle just North of Paris. The raid was a great success and of the 250 aircraft involved in the mission, only 6 Lancasters were lost, one of which was Douglas Leatherland’s. His aircraft came down at Piscop, 25km North of Paris, killing the entire crew.

Source for additional information: In Dedication to a Future World By Mark Rogers, 1999.