Porthleven service honours 'Dambusters' hero Guy Gibson

The wreath-laying service took place on Friday, September 19, at the memorial to bomber pilot and commander Gibson, who frequently returned to the port which was his mother’s home town, and who died aged 26 when his Mosquito aircraft crashed over the Netherlands in September 1944.

The ceremony outside the Bickland Smith Institute was led by Porthleven vicar Rev Peter Johnson, before town mayor Daniel Williams said a few words and laid a wreath. Local historian Vic Strike addressed the crowd on the connection between Gibson and the port, before Beatrice Kernow of Porthleven Old Cornwall Society ended the service.

Vic said: “It went brilliantly, we had perfect weather and a perfect crowd, there must have been up to about 100 people there. That was lovely.”

Vic said he doesn’t think the people of Porthleven know enough about the links between the town and Gibson, who flew over 170 operations for RAF Bomber Command by the age of 24, and was due to be withdrawn from active duty before being asked to command a new formation, 617 Squadron, for the famous Dambusters raid, an operation for which he was awarded the Victoria Cross.

Although he was born in India, his mother Nora was from Porthleven and he spent much of his leave there.

Vic said: “He returned to Porthleven after the dam’s raid and I think that was his last time. He should have come to Porthleven before but he formed a squadron to go on the dams raid and forfeited his Cornish leave then.

The ceremony also commemorated the death of Gibson’s navigator, Jim Warwick, who was also killed in the crash at Steenbergen.