Funeral held for Vale of Belvoir resident (102) who was wartime hero

Dennis Kirk shows off his card from The Queen back in 2020 to mark his 100th birthday, with wife, Joan

The funeral has taken place of one of the Vale of Belvoir’s oldest residents who was also a wartime hero.

Dennis Kirk was 102 when he passed away – he continued to live at home at Plungar with wife Joan, who survives him.

We reported how Dennis was serenaded by villagers when he turned 100 during the pandemic - locals gathered at a safe distance in the couple’s garden to sing ‘happy birthday’, accompanied by a lone trumpeter.

A funeral service took place at the Barkestone-le-Vale Church followed by burial, alongside other family members, in the churchyard of St Helen’s Church, Plungar.

At the wartime Lancaster bomber crash site in 2013, Dennis Kirk (left) recalls the incident for Barrie Davies (right) who is the son of the only crash survivor Sgt Douglas Davies

Speaking to the Melton Times in 2020, Dennis, who was born in Barkestone, said: “Apparently, I was born in a snow storm and the doctor arrived on a horse and trap.”

The family moved to Plungar and ran Poplar Farm in the village – Dennis worked on it after leaving school and he put his long life down to doing farmwork in the open air for many years.

His was a reserved occupation when war came in 1939 but Dennis was in the Home Guard and also worked in the fire watch and as an air raid warden.

He famously helped save the life of a British airman on March 5, 1943, when a Lancaster bomber crashed near the village after aborting several attempts to land at Langar Airfield in heavy fog.

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

He helped the injured RAF man to a nearby farm where he was eventually given medical assistance.

Dennis helped get a granite memorial and plaque erected for the airmen who died and it was unveiled 10 years ago, with relatives of the crew present.

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

Dennis married Joan more than 40 years ago and the couple 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.