Service Number 1210084 (AIR78) AC1 Aircraftman First Class
A.C.I.R.A.F.V.R.
Aubrey James McHenry was born on 3rd December 1920 in Canterbury, the same year that his father Patrick, a career soldier, was discharged from the army.
By 1939 the family is living at 47 Stechford Road, Castle Bromwich and Aubrey is recorded as working for the General Post Office Engineering Heavy Supplies Store. By the time of his death he was working as an Engineer’s Mechanic.
He is known to have enlisted with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve at Cardington on 12th November 1940. He spent the first month training at Cardington before transferring to Doncaster on 18th December for further training.
In August 1941 he was assigned to the 48 Maintenance Unit. At the start of WW2 the Royal Air Force operated 3555 aircraft; by May 1945 this had risen to 55469. Similarily, the number of personnel had risen from 175,692 in September 1939 to 1,130, 460 by the Beginning of September 1945. To deliver air power on the global scale that the war required logistics were paramount and it was in this capacity that Aubrey served. The majority of the RAF’s personnel were ground crew without whom the aircraft would not have flown nor the war won.
The 48th Maintenance Unit was responsible for the repair and maintenance of a range of aircraft including Percival Proctors, Airspeed Oxfords, Avro Ansons, Westland Lysanders and Vickers Wellingtons. Aubrey remained attached to 48 Maintenance Unit until 10th February 1942 when he was determined disabled.
Aubrey died on August 10th 1946 aged 25 years from myelogenous leukemia. At the time of Aubrey’s death science and medicine were starting to gain a better understanding of leukemia and cancers more generally, and it was in that year, 1946, that the Leukemia Research Foundation was established in the USA.
Aubrey is buried in a family grave in Castle Bromwich Graveyard by St Mary and St Margaret Church.
