Richard Henry Foster was born on 1 May 1921, the second of the three children of Bertie Foster (1888-1966) and Edith Kate Foster née Nixey (1891-1967). His birth was registered in the 2nd quarter of 1921 in the Paddington Registration District, London. On 15 May 1921 he was baptised at St Jude's Church, Kensal Green, Middlesex (now Greater London), where in the baptismal register his family were shown to be living at 65 Herries Street, London, W10 and that his father was a railway guard.
He was appointed as a postman in the London Postal Region on 19 November 1937.
In the 1939 England and Wales Register he is shown as a GPO messenger boy, living at 2 First Avenue, Paddington, with his parents and his two brothers: Bertie Charles Foster (1913-1975) - a GPO letter sorter and Leonard Ernest Foster (1924-1994). His father was described as a railway motorman. He was promoted to wireless operator with the General Post Office on 20 June 1940.
He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 1332678. He was attached to 142 Squadron, Bomber Command on 21 July 1942 and on 29 July 1942 he was onboard a Vickers Wellington Mark IV aeroplane, serial number Z1316 with the markings QT-H, in the role of observer that took off from RAF Grimsby, Lincolnshire, partaking in a raid on Saarbrucken, Germany. In the early hours of 30 July 1942 it was shot down by Oberleutnant Eckhart-Wilhelm von Bonin and crashed near Olmen, Belgium. He was 21 years old and both he and the other five crewmen were , of the Adegem Canadian War Cemetery, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium.
He is shown as 'FOSTER R.H.' on the Western Postal District war memorial at Mount Pleasant, London, WC1. He is also commemorated on the , on , on the and on the .
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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