Former cadet of the Air Training Corps - 296th (Stoke Newington) Squadron. Died in WW2.
The laminated plaque attached to one of the trees planted in his memory reads:- Flying Officer Gilbert Leonard Marks, aged 23, (Navigator) killed on returning from night practice in India.
His birth was registered in the 3rd quarter of 1922 in Hackney and he was the son of Leonard Sidney Marks (1900-1977) and Emily Maud Marks née Mace (1899-1993). His father was a chauffeur/mechanic. Electoral registers from 1922 to 1936 show that the family were living at 60 Frampton Park Road, Hackney but the 1939 England and Wales Register confirms that they had moved to 2 Lordship Park Mews, Stoke Newington.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and his service number was 167598. On 22 December 1944 he was commissioned as a Pilot Officer and was promoted to Flying Officer on 22 June 1945. Despite the plaque stating he died in India, probate records gives his death, on 30 November 1945, in Kankesanturai, Ceylon, (now Sri Lanka) and he is buried in Plot 2, Row J, Grave 8, in the Trincomalee War Cemetery, Pulmoddai Road, Trincomalee, Sri Lanka. It is confirmed that he died when aboard a Liberator GR.VI aeroplane, Number KK223, along with five other crew members when it undershot during a night landing at Kankesanturai causing it to cartwheel. There were no survivors.
His home address was confirmed in the probate records as 2 Lordship Park Mews and his mother was granted administration of his estate on 10 June 1949. His effects totalled £334-19s-6d.
Although he served in WW2 he actually died after it had ended, on 2 September 1945.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan
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