Harry joined the RAF in 1941 after a short spell in his father’s business, receiving much of his flying training in the USA in the states of Florida and Alabama. On his return to England in 1942 he received promotion to Flight Sergeant and was subsequently commissioned.  His squadron was based at RAF Holme, Yorkshire and flew the Handley Page Halifax 4-engined heavy bomber from where he undertook several operational trips over France and Germany.

It was on one such sortie, which took off at 23:47 hrs on 15^th July 1944 to attack a site at Nucourt, in Northern France, used as a V1 flying bomb storage facility, that his aircraft, MZ524 failed to return. He and his flight crew of three other airmen were reported as missing. It was nearly twelve months before confirmation was received that all the crew had perished on Sunday 16^th July 1944 when their communal grave was discovered by the British military in the small local cemetery at Courcelles-les-Gisors. Harry was 22 years old. They were the only Allied military personnel to be buried there. The cause of the crash was never established.

Elder son of OW Captain Harry Steward, OBE, MC, JP, & Sybil M. Steward of Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

A copy of this story is available for download here.

See also the Commonwealth War Graves Commission permanent digital memorial, ‘Evermore: Stories of the fallen’ relating to:-
F/Officer Harry Michael STEWARD