8 BACK ROW Alan Havelock Spence – STAR BACK ROW PLAYER LOST IN AIR CRASH

Alan Havelock Spence was born in Sunderland in 1909 and died as the result of an air crash in 1943. He was probably SRFC’s most successful player between the wars and played in the back row. He represented the county on over 20 occasions  and was part of a joint Northumberland/Durham side which played against the All Blacks. He  was also the only Sunderland player in the Durham County side which celebrated the county’s Diamond Jubilee in 1936. His father was a bank clerk and the family lived in Tunstall Terrace and Brookside Terrace. He married in 1939 and then moved to Gosforth. Having joined the RAF, he became a sergeant observer. In March 1943, his stricken Lancaster bomber crashed short of Langar airfield near Melton Mowbray. The plane had been on a mine-laying mission and was unable to land at its home airfield, Grimsby, because of bad weather. Only one member of the crew survived. Alan was buried at Seahouses and there is a plaque near the crash site recalling the bravery of the crew.

Google ‘Alan Havelock Spence’. There is much online on him and the rest of the crew.