Informal outdoor portrait of 404786 Sergeant (Sgt) Noel Messines Toohill. Sgt Toohill enlisted in ...

Informal outdoor portrait of 404786 Sergeant (Sgt) Noel Messines Toohill. Sgt Toohill enlisted in November 1940 and trained initially in Australia and later Canada as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS). In August 1941 he was transferred to 207 Squadron RAF. On 9 January 1942, Sgt Toohill and fellow crew of Manchester Bomber call sign EM-Q serial number L7322 were involved in an attack on the Scharnhorst and Gneissnau at Brest. The bomber left RAF Station Bottesford, Nottingham at 0359 hours and never returned to base. Later investigations revealed that the aircraft crashed with no survivors in the sea near Crozon, France. The bodies of two of the crew, Pilot Officer (PO) G R Bayley (RAF) and 407808 Sgt William Rex Seymour (RAAF), were later recovered and interred in the Crozon Cemetery, France. The remainder of the crew were never found and were recorded as having lost their lives at sea. The names of Sgt Toohill, Sgt A G Harris (RAF), Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) J E Jones DFM (RAF), Flt Sgt R V Griffiths (RAF) and 406450 Sgt Peter Charles-Herbert Goldie are all recorded on the Memorial to the Missing in Runnymede, England.