Blog No. 314 – Cliff in Bomber Command, The War Winds Up, Part 1 – 25 July 2025
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This is the Latin record held at Saint Robert Bellarmine Church of the marriage of Cliff and Josephine on the 10th of March 1945. It says:
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Another view of the Red Lion Hotel where Cliff and Josephine were introduced by Harry Bellew.
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Photo of the tiny flat in Park Lane Litherland where my grandmother Mary Jane Robson lived and died in her final years. Grandma had a heart attack and died while walking through the local park to the nearby shops.
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The Service Record shows that Cliff was posted back to 32 Base on the 1st of March 1945. This posting went until 1st of November 1945 and as from 1st of November 1945, the Service Record shows he was posted back to “Mildenhall”. The posting to 32 Base was simply a renewed posting to Mildenhall, which then formed part of 32 Base.
Cliff received a wage increase based on completed years of RAF service with effect from the 3rd of May 1945.
Cliff received an additional wage increase from the 30th of September 1945 after completion of 5 years of service.
As from the 29th of August 1945, the RAF finally changed the details of Cliff’s designated next of kin to “Mrs T.C. Hankin”. In those days, married women were often referred to not by their own Christian names, but by the name or initials of their husbands. This is why Cliff’s next of kin named in the Service Record was Mrs TC Hankin rather than Mrs Josephine Hankin. Josephine’s address was given as 13 Northfield Road Bootle, Liverpool. This was Josephine’s address as set out on the marriage certificate.
When she married Cliff, Josephine was only 20 years old. In 1945, she did not legally become an adult until she became 21 on the 9th of May 1945. To marry Cliff, she needed written permission from my maternal grandmother. My maternal grandfather had died in 1938.
How did mum and dad meet?
Cliff was introduced to Josephine by Harold (Harry) Bellew. They had worked together before the war and Harry had married Veronica (Vera) Bellew, Josephine’s older sister. Cliff had done what no other men who lived in the Bootle area had been prepared to do.
Cliff did not hold Josephine in contempt simply because she had a child outside of marriage in wartime Liverpool. Because she had had a child, Josephine had become a social outcast. Cliff did not care about the idiotic rules then rigidly enforced in Liverpool society. He judged Josephine on the basis of his own assessment of her character.
Apart from the boycott of the marriage by his own family, there were some other long lasting consequences of the differences - according to the RAF Service Record - between the residential addresses of Cliff and Josephine.
For financial reasons, Josephine could not live away from her mother’s home until she was able to live with her husband.
Because of his service obligations, Cliff had to live at whatever posting the RAF sent him to.
This meant Cliff and Josephine had to live apart until such time as Cliff’s RAF service came to an end.
As far as the RAF was concerned, Cliff’s official home address continued to be 18 Date Street.
Because Cliff’s official address was 18 Date Street, Cliff’s war service medals were sent to 18 Date Street. Unlike the awarding of medals in WW 1, when medals had to be personally collected and signed for, Cliff’s medals were sent to his official home address by mail.
When Cliff’s medals arrived at 18 Date Street, Mary Jane Ethel Robson – my grandmother – took possession of the medals and Cliff was never able to regain physical possession of them. Mary Jane might have thought her son’s marriage was too contemptible for her to attend - and that the marriage was too contemptible for her to permit anyone else in the Hankin family to attend – but she was very vain about Cliff’s medals and would not give them back to him.
These are the medals my grandmother stole from Cliff:
Defence Medal;
War Medal 1939-1945; and
Air Crew Europe Star.
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When Mary Jane died in 1979, Cliff’s medals were still hidden inside her Council flat, as were the thousands of pounds in cash that she had saved over the decades and hidden in the flat.
Cliff’s brother Stan heard his mother Mary Jane had died and rushed to the flat to see what he could find before anyone else arrived. By that stage, my uncle Stan was a hopeless alcoholic. Stan found Cliff’s war medals and sold them to buy more booze. Cliff’s brother Eric arrived before Stan could find the hidden stash of money. The money stash came to tens of thousands of pounds. Although Stan was prevented from stealing all of the hidden money, he shared equally in the money. Cliff lost both his war medals and his share of the hidden cash.
Stan Hankin’s story is tragic and very moving. I will give more information about Stan in future blogs.
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