A WAR hero who hailed from Llanidloes is being honoured in his home town at the end of this month.
Russel ‘Lofty’ Hamer is being honoured with a memorial plaque and ceremony on Wednesday, June 22, at Llanidloes High School.
The ceremony is due to begin at 11.30am, with the memorial plaque being presented to the school by Councillor Gareth Morgan on behalf of the Battle of Britain Historical Society, in recognition of Russel’s contribution and supreme sacrifice for his country.
Russel Chapman Hamer was born in 1916 in Llanidloes. The son of alderman Richard Bryce Stephen Hamer and Edith Mary Chapman, he joined the RAF as an aircraft apprentice in January 1933 and qualified as an aircraft fitter in 1936.
During the Battle of Britain he was stationed at Biggin Hill and Ackrington and was flying a Boulton Paul Defiant 1NF, a ‘night fighter’. From April 1941 he flew one of the first Bristol Beaufighter 1Fs, one of the first aircraft in the world to be fitted with airborne radar.
In the latter half of 1941 Russel teamed up with Flight Sergeant E Walsh, flying lone patrols at night over the coast and the English Channel looking for lone German raiders and reconnaissance aircrafts. In June 1942, flying in a Beaufighter from Acklington, they attacked and destroyed a Dornier Do 217.
He died on September 9 that year, when his aircraft crashed after a fight with a Heinkel HE 111, which was also destroyed.
The funeral service was held at St Idloes Church and he was buried at Dolhafren Cemetery in Llanidloes. The funeral procession was a mile long and consisted of 4,000 people.
Russel was recommended for the VC, the only medal awarded posthumously, but it was not awarded as it needed two witnesses and there was only one, Flight Sergeant Walsh. He was “mentioned in dispatches” in June 1943 and his name and that of 141 Squadron are on the Battle of Britain Memorial on the Victoria Embankment.
Russel had been a pupil at the old county school in Llanidloes which no longer exists, said Clive Millman of the Battle of Britain Historical Society.
“Llanidloes High School has very kindly agreed to ‘adopt’ Russel and honour him for his bravery and heroism,” he said.
“Placing the memorial plaque in the school not only honours a brave man who fought in the Battle of Britain but also provides a focus for current and future pupils, to help them understand the significance of the Battle of Britain,” Mr Millman added.