RELATIVES of an Islander who left Jersey as a teenager during the Second World War to enlist in the RAF have attended a moving commemorative ceremony in the French village where he lost his life.
Sergeant Flight Engineer Eric Richomme was one of the seven-man crew of Lancaster Bomber JB664 when the plane was shot down in the early hours of 28 June 1944 near the village of Bransles, around 60 miles south-east of Paris.
The story of the former De La Salle College pupil, who left Jersey aged 16 during the early days of the Occupation to join the Allied forces, had never been properly told until his nieces, Bunty Langford and Anne Trafford, shared it with the JEP earlier this year.
Family members had been invited to a ceremony organised by the Mayor of Bransles, and while Mrs Langford and Mrs Trafford were unable to make the trip, the family was represented by Sgt Richomme’s great-nephews Ben, Steve and Richard Langford.
Around 350 people attended the event, almost doubling the village’s population, with 25 British citizens representing five of the seven crewmen, aged between 19 and 31, who lost their lives.
Flowers were laid on the communal grave dug by villagers on the morning of the crash, while flags were raised and a plaque was unveiled giving details of what happened.
During his speech, Mayor of Bransles Mayor Florent Négrier said: “Our desire is both to preserve the duty of remembrance and to inscribe this story in the history of the village.”
Ben Langford told the JEP about the emotional experience of seeing how much local people had valued the contribution of those who fought against the German forces who had occupied their country.
“It was really quite humbling to learn how much had been done to honour these men, and the trouble that had been taken to organise the event,” he said. “We spoke to an elderly man who remembered seeing the aftermath of the crash as an eight-year-old in 1944.
“Bransles is a tiny place in the middle of nowhere, but the effort they had gone to in staging this ceremony was incredible – they couldn’t do enough for us.”
The three brothers were given a fragment of metal from the Lancaster, which had set off from RAF Metheringham in Lincolnshire at 10.55pm on 27 June, and also three urns of soil from the crash site that they were able to bring back to Jersey.
Speaking in May after receiving the invitation for the family to come to the event, Mrs Langford described her uncle’s childhood fascination with planes, prompting his decision to leave Jersey and subsequently enlist in the RAF, potentially giving a false date-of-birth in order to meet the qualifying age.
Sgt Richomme never returned to Jersey, and was initially marked as “missing” on official records before confirmation came in a letter to the family in late May 1945 about the discovery of Sgt Richomme’s engineer’s badge, which had been retrieved from his uniform – this information had not previously been passed on due to fears that family members in Nazi-occupied Jersey might suffer reprisals.
A letter from King George VI was subsequently received by Sgt Richomme’s parents, expressing the monarch’s “heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow”.
