Luke was born on the 31 of December 1922 at 148 High Street Mosborough
His parents were John (Jack) and Catherine (Kate – nee Snowden) Barnes
After serving in WW1 Jack Barnes returned to his wife & family living in Mosborough. Trying his luck in various jobs locally and realising the onset of the Depression, rationing & job shortages, Jack decided to emigrate to New Zealand and join his brother Walker Barnes, a blacksmith who had emigrated some three years earlier and had become well established in his trade.
The departure to New Zealand was delayed because of Kate’s pregnancy of her fourth child (Luke) This was because of the limited medical care available on passenger liners. Six months elapsed before embarking on their journey.
On arrival at NZ Jack found employment at Thomas Borthwicks Freezing Co (a branch of theirs also being at Sheffield at the time) and Jack managed to establish a home for Kate and the children.
A year or so later Kate’s 21 year old brother Arnold Snowden followed them to try his luck in the new country.
Luke had a very happy childhood living in a farmstead on the outskirts of Christchurch at a small village called Papanui.
He acquired the nickname ‘Pop’ during an incident when starting infants’ school at Christchurch…being asked where he lived and unable to pronounce the name Papanui he uttered the words Pop…Pop… and then gave up. This then stuck to him as an affectionate term.
He volunteered for the Air Force in 1939 at the age of 16. After initial training he was sent to a training camp in Canada called Chicoutima where he completed his pilots training
On completing his training, he spent time flying heavy transport planes and cargo across the Atlantic
He was then transferred to lighter aircraft and was active in various units during his initial fighter training in Liverpool & Northumberland
He was then transferred to 74 (Tiger) squadron that was a front-line support unit. This entailed moving along with the allied front as it advanced through France after the Normandy landings.
The life of these pilots was very exciting and unbelievable in the fact that some of them carrying out three sorties a day
On the fateful day – the 19th April 1945 (some 15 days before the signal to allied forces to cease offensive operations) Luke took off from the base (at Droppe in Germany) at 6.15pm for his last flight, having already made a previous operation that morning.
The target area was North East Bremen and Hamburg, when his aircraft was hit by ground fire near a place called Oldendorf
Unfortunately, his aircraft was too low for him to bail out and his plane crash landed, burst into flames and skidded 300 yards into a wood
His Squadron Leader wrote to his Uncle (Kate’s younger brother – who had returned to England in 1935) where Luke had spent some of his infrequent leave.
The officer related the events of his demise and also reported his last words heard over the radio, which were:
Pop Barnes here….
Too low to bail out…
Goodbye England…
Goodbye World…
Maybe sounding a little corny in this modern world but was in keeping with the mood and style of the time.
His grave has been traced to a cemetery in Germany at a place called Becklingem near Soltau (directly south of Hamburg) Ironically numbered 13 which is the date of his Uncles birthday
Credit to the Snowden Family
