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on of George and Alice Dale of 16 Sheffield Street, Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire. He was born on 19th November 1909, one of three brothers and four sisters. Joining the Royal Air Force, he was posted to 207 Squadron at RAF Bircham Newton; in 1932 he married Elsie May Meek, daughter of Walter and Agnes Meek of Docking; they had two sons, Ray in 1934 and Barry in 1941. In 1928 he was part of the RAF Gymnastics Team at the Royal Tournament in London. Whilst stationed at Bircham Newton, part of Docking parish, he played football for Docking and coached Docking school at football, athletics and gymnastics. In December 1935 he completed his service, but remaining on the reserve he returned to Scunthorpe with his family. On 24th February 1940 he was recalled for active duty and was again stationed at Bircham Newton as part of RAF Coastal Command, latterly in 42 Squadron. The Allied campaign against the Germans in Norway ended on 8th June 1940 and their forces were evacuated by sea from Narvik in four convoys. The German battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau left the Baltic to threaten this and the Royal Navy, but after a series of actions withdrew to the shelter of the Norwegian fiords near Trondheim. On 21st June 1940, having flown from Bircham Newton to Thorney Island and then north to Wick in Scotland, 508348 Sergeant Fred Dale was the rear gunner of a Beaufort torpedo aircraft, part of a RAF attack on the Scharnhorst sheltering in it's fiord; he, his two fellow crew members and his aircraft failed to return from this gallant raid, and were recorded as Missing in Action. He was 31 years old. He held the 1939-45 Star (Battle of Britain), the Atlantic Star (Aircrew, Europe) and the 1939-45 War Medal with a Mention in Despatches. His name is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial (Panel 13) at Cooper's Hill at Englefield Green, 4 miles from Windsor.