AN AIRMAN who was shot down over the village of Bachy in northern France on 19 May 1940, and wrongly identified as having been laid to rest there, has been buried with full military honours in France.

Squadron Leader George Morley Fidler was simultaneously remembered at a service in the North Yorkshire village of Great Ayton, where he was born and baptised.

He was 27 and had been Commanding Officer of the squadron for just three days when his Hurricane was one of several shot down while patrolling the skies above Cambrai. His body was initially believed to have been recovered by the villagers in Bachy, who tended the grave faithfully for many years.

Diocese of YorkA memorial service is held in the North Yorkshire village of Great Ayton, where George Fidler was born and baptised

In 2005, however, metal detectorists discovered wreckage bearing the serial number P3535 in ground 35km away, at Oisy-le-Verger. Ministry of Defence investigations revealed that, in assigning the name, authorities had failed to take into account two RAF sergeants who had died on the same day. The Bachy headstone inscription was changed to “Unknown Airman”.

In 2022, work on the Seine-Nord Canal at Oisy unearthed a Hurricane with the pilot still inside it, close to where Fidler’s aircraft had last been sighted. DNA testing proved conclusively that it was him.

The funeral service in France was organised by the MOD Joint Casualty and Compassionate Centre (JCCC), also known as the MOD “War Detectives”, who work to identify the recovered remains of British military casualties.

Nicola Mash, of JCCC, said: “Although there is no family here today, I’d like to think that us being here with the RAF represents that close emotional bond. These men made the ultimate sacrifice for the life we live today. Even 86 years later, it’s important that there is still a team looking for them.”

The Vicar of Great Ayton with Easby and Newton under Roseberry, in York diocese, the Revd Sarah Cliff, said: “I just thought we needed to do something to remember a life lost, but also to remember the shape of this country, which has been made by those communities changed for ever by loss of life: children not born, families not happening.”

She continued: “It’s just grown — people want to know this amazing story, and about the care that has been shown since he was found. He walked these streets. He was baptised in this church. It’s really important that we honour him, and that we honour all those who died, whether it was last week or 86 years ago.”