Vale of Belvoir wartime hero Dennis celebrates 100th birthday

Dennis Kirk was serenaded by villagers as he reached his personal milestone on Saturday - they gathered in the garden of his home at Plungar to sing happy birthday accompanied by a lone trumpeter.

It was a lovely moment for Dennis and his 93-year-old wife, Joan, and with the need to maintain social distancing on his special day he had a video conferencing call with family members.

He retains remarkably vivid memories from his life stretching back to the 1920s and to that harrowing moment when he came to the aid of the surviving airman in that wartime RAF aircraft crash in 1943.

Dennis, who has received nearly 100 birthday cards including the traditional one from The Queen, continues to mow his own large garden and puts his longevity down to a healthy life spent mainly doing farmwork in the open air.

He told the Melton Times: “I’ve had a wonderful century.

“I’ve never been out of the country in my life but I’ve no regrets.

“I was a bit wild when I was young but I’ve lived a healthy life since then.”

Dennis was born in Barkestone-le-Vale and he commented: “Apparently I was born in a snow storm and the doctor arrived on a horse and trap.”

He attended the village school before moving to Plungar when he was nine - he had a sister who died aged seven and a brother who passed away at 67.

The family ran Poplar Farm in the village and Dennis worked on it after leaving school - milking cows, keeping sheep and pigs and cultivating crops.

“I wanted to be a butcher when I was young,” recalled Dennis. “But you didn’t get to do what you wanted in those days and I went into the family farming business.”

His was a reserved occupation when war broke out but Dennis was determined to do his bit, enlisting with the Home Guard and also working in the fire watch and as an air raid warden.

On March 5, 1943, a Lancaster bomber was attempting to land at Langar Airfield after aborting several attempts to land elsewhere due to heavy fog.

But the aircraft - part of RAF 100 Squadron - never made it and came down a few miles short close to Plungar.

Six crew members lay dead in the wreckage and the only survivor, Sgt Douglas Davies, was found by Dennis on a nearby railway line suffering from head injuries and a broken ankle.

Dennis, who was on air raid duty, took the dazed airman - a mid-upper gunner on the plane - to a nearby farm until medical help arrived.

He recalled: “I was walking with a friend about 3.30am when I heard this plane go over, the engines didn’t sound right and then it suddenly went flop.

“Three of the crew had been thrown out of the plane and they were dead - it was a shock because I had never seen dead people before.

“There was one survivor who had been thrown onto the railway tracks.

“He seemed very dazed and we asked if there were any bombs on board and he said there weren’t any.

“The plane wasn’t on fire and it was strangely mostly intact.”

The Lancaster had taken off from RAF Grimsby the previous day and had completed a successful mine-laying mission over the French port of St Nazaire.

As the years went by, Dennis thought there should be some kind of memorial at the crash site to the six men who lost their lives.

That dream came true in 2012 when a commemorative granite memorial and plaque was unveiled and a service was held, attemded by relatives of crew members.

Dennis was married first to Jean before she passed away - the couple had a son, David, two grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

He married Joan more than 40 years ago and the couple have spent many years helping out at St Helen’s Church in the village - Dennis rang the church bells for half a century and also wound the clock.

Joan said of her beloved husband: “He just carries on. He is kind to everyone and helps everybody where he can.”

Neighbour Margaret Adams said Dennis knew everyone in the village and he was popular with all.

“It was lovely to see how the village came together to wish him happy birthday - it was really very moving,” she said.

Rutland and Melton MP, Alicia Kearns, was keen to recognise the wartime efforts of Dennis and his community spirit, commenting: “Enormous congratulations to Mr Kirk on reaching this remarkable milestone.

“I would like to express my immense gratitude to him for 10 decades where it is quite clear that he has exhibited an absolute sense of civic spirit, community mindedness and kindness.

“I very much look forward to meeting Mr Kirk when our country has healed to celebrate his birthday and century of contributions to our country.”

Crew members killed in the Plungar crash were 21-year-old pilot Fl Sgt Russell Avey (of the Royal Canadian Air Force), Sgt Grey Cumberbatch (21), Sgt Benjamin Hallett (23), 21-year-old Fl Sgt Rene Landry (Royal Canadian Air Force), Sgt John Robinson (34) and Sgt Alan Spence (32).