Local historian finds family of Carlisle-born WW2 Pilot Officer

Sarah Lee, formerly of Trinity School, set up 'Genealogy Cumbria', a project focused on researching local servicemen.

In her latest triumph, Sarah has tracked down the family of Pilot Officer Robert Goulding, who after being born in Carlisle in 1920, was killed in the Second World War with his '10 Squadron' crew over Coevorden near Hardenburg in July 1941. 

Pilot Officer Robert Goulding - photograph supplied by his nephew Robert Neil Thomson (Image: Supplied)

Sarah was able to track down Robert's family using the middle name 'Campbell' as a guide, a name common in the Goulding family tree.

After making the discovery, she expressed her delight and shared new details of Robert's final moments. 

She said: "He was flying back from having completed his mission when the plane went down, he made the decision to stay in the plane and make sure it did not land on the village.

"He chose to not bail out to make sure innocent people were not killed, he literally made that split-second decision at 21, such a brave man."

"Starting to find families is really exciting because you get these personal stories and you get photographs and I think once you can see a photograph, and I mean these men were so young, poor Robert was only 21 when he died, that is no age at all.

"Meeting the family and hearing their stories is really moving. 

The discovery of Robert's family comes weeks after Dutch couple Rita and Herman Harmsen began searching for relatives after adopting P/O Goulding's grave, which is located in the Hardenburg General Cemetry.

Upon hearing the news that Robert's family had been found, Rita shared how she and Herman were overjoyed and care for his grave with 'love'. 

"May 4 is the day of remembrance in the Netherlands, commemorating the fallen in WW2. 

"On that day, Herman and I also lay a poppy wreath at his grave and at his fellow crew members.

"We adopted the graves with love. Lest we forget," She said. 

For Sarah, this discovery fits into a much wider project she has undertaken in partnership with Trinity School's Head of Humanities Linda Wedderburn.

This project has centered on identifying the families of the servicemen inscribed on Trinity School's three war memorials dedicated to World War One and Two.

Robert's name is etched on this WW2 memorial at Trinity School (Image: Trinity School)

The monuments reflect on times when Trinity was separated into three schools, Creight Boys, Creighton Girls, and Grammar School.

Sarah and Linda have seen great success with this project, with the pair releasing a book on their finding from examining the Grammar School's World War One monument, with all the proceeds from this book going to Armed Forces charities.

Now the pair are turning their attention to the 200 names, including Eoert Goulding, that are etched into the school's Second World War memorials with progress proving difficult. 

She said: "It is really exciting, when Linda and I first researched these 90 men who are commemorated in the World World One board at Trinity, we managed to contact two-thirds of the families and we have just started on the World War Two ones and surprisingly it is actually more difficult because more of their records you are not allowed to view due to confidentiality."

Sarah and Linda are hoping that this success story will inspire others to look back at their family history and appeal to anyone with any information about a relative who was killed during the First and Second World Wars to get in contact with a name, description, and, if possible, a photograph, as they seek to uncover more local stories.