The Sunday Telegraph - 01.09.2019

The Sunday Telegraph Sunday 1 September 2019 *** 11

News

Church rules family cannot move

father’s ashes to closer graveyard

By Gabriella Swerling SOCIAL AND
RELIGIOUS AFFAIRS EDITOR

A FAMILY has been refused permis-
sion to exhume their father’s ashes af-
ter a church court said they just wanted
a graveyard nearer their home.
Julie Morton requested permission
from Church of England officials to ex-
hume her father’s remains from a
churchyard in Bolton, Greater Man-
chester.
Ms Morton and her brothers, Paul
and Kevin, claim that the area sur-
rounding St Mary the Virgin’s church
in the village of Deane has become
“derelict” with “dubious and unsa-
voury characters hanging around, pos-
sibly drug dealing”.
However, the church refused per-
mission for the exhumation, saying
that the case did not meet the threshold
for changing a last resting place.
Following the ruling, the family have
accused the church of having “a lack of
empathy”. George Humphreys has

been buried at St Mary the Virgin since

he died aged 77 in March 2007.

Consistory Court documents reveal

that when one of the brothers had gone

to visit his father’s grave he could not

get near because a group was playing

rounders at the graveside.

The family wanted to exhume the

ashes of Mr Humphreys and move his

remains to St Werburgh’s Old Church

at Warburton, close to Warrington,

where his wife, Audrey Humphreys’

ashes are set to be buried following her

death on Dec 16 2018.

However, Geoffrey Tattersall QC,

chancellor of the diocese of Manches-

ter, said that relocating Mr Humphrey’s

remains would not be possible, citing

rules that a last resting place must be

just that – unless there are “exceptional

circumstances”. In her plea, Ms Morton

said the family “can only see matters

becoming even worse”.

In his ruling, Mr Tattersall said: “On

the facts here I am not persuaded that

... I should find that sufficient special

circumstances exist to justify my mak-

ing an exception from the norm that

Christian burial is final.”

Mr Tattersall added: “I think that the

real reason behind this application is

not that the petitioner’s parents’ cre-

mated remains be interred together,

because that can still happen in Deane,

but is to inter them together in a local-

ity where most of the family are cur-

rently located and can conveniently

visit.

“To allow this application would be

to approve a practice of regarding cre-

mated remains as ‘portable’, which I am

not willing to do.”

St Mary the Virgin’s church was con-

tacted for comment.

Original plays take

centre stage in

the West End

THE number of original West End

plays has trebled in the past decade, re-

search shows.

Artists have suggested that the rise is

due to writers being inspired to create

shows about political issues, such as

refugees and Brexit.

In 2009, just three plays in the West

End were not revivals or based on ex-

isting source material, such as a book

or film.

But a survey by The Stage found the

proportion of original works is at its

highest now, making up 21 per cent of

all productions.

Among those now showing are Lynn

Nottage’s Sweat, Kenneth Lonergan’s

The Starry Messenger, Stefano Massini’s

The Lehman Trilog y and two Jack

Thorne plays: The End of History... and

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

Sonia Friedman, the producer of

Harry Potter, said: “Of course it is very

exciting to see more new plays being

produced, but it doesn’t entirely sur-

prise me. When you live in challenging

times, writers will have something to

say and audiences will want to listen.”

To be classed as original, the plays

had to not be based on pre-existing

source material.

RAF bomber crew

shot down in 1942

to be given burials

By Jack Hardy

FOR the best part of a century, the fam-
ily of RAF flight engineer Maurice Pep-
per believed his fate was forever lost in
the vast and terrible conflict which
claimed his life.
The 27-year-old had been part of a
Stirling bomber crew that disappeared
en route to a planned raid on the indus-
trial nerve centre of the Nazi war ma-
chine in 1942.
His plane was gunned down by en-
emy fire and spiralled into a boggy field
in the Netherlands where, over dec-
ades, it began to sink below the earth.
No word of Sgt Pepper’s wherea-
bouts ever reached his family and his
beloved sister, Patricia, died without
realising the missing aircrew were far
from forgotten.
Now, exactly 80 years since the start
of the Second World War, an extraordi-
nary campaign started by a Dutch fam-
ily has meant the young sergeant and
three of his valiant colleagues could,
finally, be given a proper burial.
Their sacrifice had for years haunted
Joep Jennissen, a farmhand who
cleared the field in the aftermath of the
Stirling W7630 crash.
He was eventually inspired to act on
behalf of his country’s liberators after
his own military service and began lob-
bying Dutch authorities to exhume the
bodies in 1999.
“He always said it was terrible how
these lads were lying there on land that
was being worked on all day long,” said
his daughter Marleen, who took over
the campaign after his death in 2003.
Their calls were initially shunned by
both the regional administration and
the owner of the land, a Catholic abbot,
amid concerns the salvage operation
would be both disruptive and costly.
But Ms Jennissen grew determined to
find the relatives of the missing airmen
in Britain.
Among them was Becky Dutton, the
niece of Sgt Pepper, who received a
phone call in January 2015 that pro-
vided the breakthrough that had long
eluded her mother.
She told The Sunday Telegraph the
call had come from the Short Stirling
Society “out of the blue”, telling her
they were looking for “any living rela-
tives of Maurice Pepper”.
She said: “It was quite an incredible
conversation, they said ‘we have been
trying to find you for years’ and put me
on to Marleen. That’s how it all began.”

Ms Dutton knew only fragmentary

details about the life of her uncle, as

her grief-stricken mother had often

found it too painful to talk about him.

Sgt Pepper had joined the RAF at the

age of 17 and specialised as a flight engi-

neer, who would have stayed behind to

help the pilot in the event the plane

was hit by enemy fire.

His service during the war was

marked by episodes of real valour, in-

cluding one sortie when he navigated a

plane to safety despite nursing gunshot

wounds to his hand and knee, for

which he was awarded the Distin-

guished Flying Medal.

He was officially recorded as missing

in action, along with four members of

the eight-man crew – pilot officer Irwin

Fountain, flight Lieutenant Leslie Barr,

mid-upper gunner John Greenwood

and rear gunner Peter Price.

Ms Jennissen believed the only way

to ensure the four lost men were given

a fitting burial was if the families joined

her campaign.

While the Dutch government of-

fered to cover 70 per cent of the costs,

the municipality was reluctant to pay

the remaining 30 per cent and the ab-

bot had religious concerns about dis-

turbing the site.

The stalemate ended when a docu-

mentary was made and new political

leadership took control of the Echt-

Susteren city council. Earlier this year,

Ms Dutton received a letter from the

deputy mayor of the region, telling her

the Dutch government would now

shoulder “100 per cent of the costs” for

the recovery of 30 to 50 planes across

the country – including her uncle’s

Stirling.

It remains to be seen whether the

men shall be given a fitting grave in

Britain or the Netherlands, but Ms Dut-

ton said she preferred the country

where they fell.

She said: “I thought it was a wonder-

ful way to honour the young men that

had given us so much and it was a relief

because, at last, we could give them a

proper resting place. I know my

mother, if she were still here, would be

absolutely thrilled to bits.”

MARY EVANS PICTURE LIBRARY

Deep joy Ray Woolley, 96, has claimed he is the world’s

oldest scuba diver after he swam 137.8ft to the Zenobia

wreck in Cyprus, yesterday for 48 minutes.

PHILIPPOS CHRISTOU/AP

News

Flight Lieutenant

Leslie Barr, with a

squadron mascot

dog, was with Sgt

Pepper on the day

the Stirling was

shot down; right,

the crew of the

Stirling W

Stirling W7630 was

part of a Pathfinder

squadron that left

RAF Oakington on

Sept 10 1942 for a

mission against key

industrial targets in

Düsseldorf.

The aircraft was to

drop flares on to the

targets, to illuminate

them for hundreds of

heavy bombers.

On board were two

Canadians – Capt

Leslie Barr, 28, and

navigator Philip

Freberg, 23, along

with five British men

and one Argentinian-

British man. They

were second pilot

Irwin Fountain, 27,

flight engineer

Maurice Pepper, 27,

mid-upper gunner

John Greenwood, 19,

rear gunner Peter

Price, 34, wireless

operator Eric Cook,

24 and observer

Ernest Runnacles, 28.

However, before

they could reach their

target, a succession of

flak bursts from the

ground forced the

low-flying aircraft

• said to be a “sitting
  duck” – into retreat.
  As it veered back
  towards the North
  Sea over the
  Netherlands, it was
  stalked by a German
  Messerschmitt and
  shot down.
  Four of the crew
  managed to bail out
  of the aircraft. Fg Off
  Freberg survived, but

was killed in battle

six months later. Plt

Off Cook was

captured and taken as

a prisoner of war,

while Plt Off

Runnacles and Flt Lt

Barr were killed from

the impact of landing.

They were identified

in 1947.

The remaining four

• Sgt Pepper, Plt Off
  Fountain, Sgt
  Greenwood and Sgt
  Price – were recorded
  as missing in action.

The mission What happened on that fateful night?

‘To allow this application

would be to approve of

regarding cremated

remains as “portable”’

‘I thought

it was a

wonderful

way to

honour the

men that

had given

us so much’

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