The response to the Memorial Restoration Appeal was most gratifying and beyond all expectations. Not only was the target cost achieved rapidly but members donated with such generosity that we ended up with a surplus of £859.60. The membership’s largesse presented the committee with the enviable task of how to dispose of this surplus in the most appropriate way. The committee met and, after much discussion, agreed that the surplus balance should form the basis of a Memorial Fund, to be administered by the Hon Treasurer. At the discretion of the Association’s Committee the fund could provide payment for such things as maintenance of the refurbished Squadron Memorial at RAF Waddington, the purchase of Squadron wreaths for services of remembrance at Waddington, Spilsby and Dunholme Lodge and at the annual Bomber Command Day at the IBCC. 

The Committee also agreed that another deserving recipient of a donation from the Memorial Fund is the Groupe National Recherche 39/45 in Laversines, France. This group, under the leadership of Cristophe Clement, are raising funds to pay for a memorial presently under construction to honour a 44 Squadron Lancaster crew shot down over the village with the loss of six of the eight crew members on board. The two survivors both eventually made it back to the UK having benefited from the courageous help from fearless members of the local branch of the French Resistance. The unveiling of the Laversines memorial will be on Saturday 6th July. Several Committee members and their wives have expressed their intentions to attend the ceremony, thus ensuring a good level of support from this Association.