Sergeant 993015 William Edward Malley

Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

5th November 1945.

Age 30.  Mentioned in Despatches.  Son of the Revd. Augustus Malley, Th.L., and Annie Elizabeth Malley, of Hemel Hempstead Vicarage, Hertfordshire; husband of Margaret Malley, of Lisburn, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland.

Malta Memorial Panel 18, Column 2.

The information below was provided by WE Malley's granddaughter, Claire Morton.

He worked for the RAF intelligence branch out of Northwood.  He was killed returning from the war on 5th November 1945 when on board Lancaster Bomber PB383, which went missing over the sea off Rome - presumed ran into a storm and crashed into the sea or exploded mid-air - no wreckage was found.
 
His father was the Vicar of Hemel Hempstead (living in what was a large vicarage - which we think is no longer there - possibly where the council buildings now stand).  His wife was 24 yrs old, widowed with 3 small children: my mother was recently 3 yrs old, and identical twins (my uncles) had turned 1yr old 2 weeks earlier.
 
His name also appears on the war memorial at Kings College Cambridge where he was a boy chorister, and also in Malta on the Commonwealth Cemetery for those working in the Mediterranean during the war - although it is believed he never actually served in Malta.
 
We know he was an intelligence Sergeant and worked for the RAF with the 5th Army in the Palace of Casserta near Naples, Italy just after the war when the post-war documents were being sorted between the Allies.  It was leaving here that he was killed.