A long, international search to trace relatives of seven Second World War airmen killed in a crash near Boston has been completed, with work now also finished on a memorial in their honour.

In the early hours of July 26, 1942, 106 Squadron Lancaster R5683 crashed near Benington Sea End while heading for an operation over Duisburg, Germany.

The crew reflected the international character of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. They included a Welshman, a Scotsman, an Australian and a Canadian, with the remaining crew members from Yorkshire, Berkshire and Suffolk. There were no survivors.

For more than a decade, Flt Sgt Andrew Copley, of RAF Coningsby, has been researching the crew.

The completed memorial to 106 Squadron Lancaster R5683.

placeholder image — The completed memorial to 106 Squadron Lancaster R5683.

Flt Sgt Copley – who has lived in Boston for about 20 years – first became interested in their story through a painting hanging in RAF Coningsby’s Warrant Officers’ and Sergeants’ Mess.

The portrait depicts the pilot of the Lancaster, Flt Sgt Geoffrey Appleyard, and had been presented to the station by his mother during the war.

“The young face in the painting prompted a simple question: who was he, and what had happened to him?” Flt Sgt Copley said. “That question developed into more than a decade of research, drawing on official records, photographs, newspaper archives, family papers and personal recollections to reconstruct the stories of the seven airmen.”

Flt Sgt Copley’s research also led to an international search for surviving family members.

Geoffrey Appleyard and crew. Why the pinny? The apron belonged to Kathleen Neal, whose family farmed near Benington, Flt Sgt Copley says. She had got to know Appleyard and several members of the crew through wartime dances at Boston's Assembly Rooms. After successful operations, she embroidered small bombs and target names onto the apron. Following the crash, she attended Geoffrey's funeral, where she met his family. Later, she would become godmother to Geoffrey's niece.

Alongside this work, he and others from RAF Coningsby, and members of the 106 Squadron Association helped support, design and construct a memorial in honour of the crew.

Unveiled in 2025, it stands near the sea bank overlooking the Butterwick Low mudflats at the nearest accessible point to where R5683 came down, created with the cooperation of landowners Saul Farms Ltd.

However, at that time, relatives for all seven airmen had yet to be traced.

Now, just over a year after the memorial was unveiled, not only are the final groundworks surrounding it complete, but also contact has been made with a surviving family member of each member of the crew.

The portrait of Geoffrey Appleyard that inspired the research project.

“The completion of the memorial groundworks and the tracing of all seven families therefore represent more than the completion of a research project,” Flt Sgt Copley said. “They bring together two sides of Remembrance. There is now a permanent place near Boston where the seven men can be remembered. And, for the first time since the research began, every one of their families knows it is there.”

Anyone who can add to Flt Sgt Copley’s research, is invited to contact him through the memorial’s dedicated Facebook page, by searching ‘Lancaster R5683 Memorial’.

The Crew of 106 Squadron Lancaster R5683: