Leading Airman FX84984, Royal Navy, HMS Condor. Died 8/12/1941. Age 19.

 

Son of Arthur Maxwell Bayley, an agricultural & mechanical engineer draughtsman and Marjorie Nella nee Strutt of Ipswich, born 24 September 1922. He had an older sister Mary & younger sister Elizabeth. By 1939 the family were living at 61 Princes Road, Felixstowe. His father served with the Royal Field Artillery in the Balkans during the First World War.

 

HMS Condor was the name for the Fleet Air Arm’s shore establishment at Arbroath, it contained No 2 Observers School, Deck Landing Training School and the Naval Air Signals.School. William was an Acting Leading Airman when the flight he was on crashed in the sea off Arbroath, Lieutenant Lieutenant Thomas Oates & Second Lieutenant Anthony Ayre were also presumed drowned. William's body was later found on the beach near Buddon Burn, Angus on 11th March 1942. He is buried at Ipswich Cemetery. Also on Ipswich War Memorial.