Bill Ambrose's sacrifice is recorded on the War Memorial Board and in the Memorial Book in Old School. School records show that he was born on 7 February 1912 and that he joined the school, with twenty-eight other boys on 20 September 1923 at the age of 11years and 7 months. His family lived in Methwold, where his father was a carpenter. Bill left school at the end of the sixth form on 30 July 1930. After leaving school we lose track of him until he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940. He trained as a navigator and radio operator. This was a lengthy process lasting at least eighteen months, possibly taking him to South Africa where the skies were safer for trainee navigators. Our next definite link with Bill is in a photograph of pilots and navigators taken in July 1943 when he was a member of 47 Squadron based at the airstrip of Protville, outside Tunis in North Africa.

We were very fortunate in receiving on loan for our commemorative exhibition several important archive items from the museum of 47 Squadron. The most impressive item was a propeller blade from a wrecked German aircraft which the squadron had found during its travels in the North African desert in 1943. It once stood outside the squadron offices at Protville in Tunisia. Bill Ambrose used to pass this trophy everyday on his way to work, as members of the squadron still do today. It is inscribed with the various triumphs over ships and aircraft which the squadron achieved in 1943. It is clearly their most treasured possession and the school was honoured that they were prepared to lend it to us for the exhibition. There was also an illustrated diary kept by one of the squadron ground crew from 1939 to 1945, the 1943 volume of the unpublished illustrated squadron history, a silk escape map, together with a silk chit written in sixteen different languages designed to encourage tribesmen to return downed RAF flyers in one piece in return for financial reward, and several framed photos of their wartime aircraft. It was a bit like having a display case from the Imperial War Museum in school.

We also had several items for the exhibition from Warrant Officer Jennings at RAF Coltishall. He lent us a complete World War Two flying suit as well as smaller items such as a gas mask, a Mark 4 computer to allow navigators to calculate their drift, some debris from a shot-down Dornier, and a medical kit.

We were also fortunate to be able to make contact with Owen Clark who is writing a history of 47 Squadron. He lives in Norfolk and was kind enough to lend the diary which was used for the Service as well as several photos of the squadron including one which featured Bill Ambrose. He also contacted a member of the squadron, now living in Australia, who was an eyewitness to the loss of Bill Ambrose.

Bill Ambrose's death was the result of a tremendous piece of ill-luck. Cliff Sullivan, now living in Australia, wrote recently of what he saw on that day in August 1943:

"We took off at 4pm on a rover patrol and attacked a small convoy with limited success, as the flak was fairly heavy. Immediately after the attack we headed for home, just us and Temple and Ambrose on our port side in close formation at about 500 feet. For no apparent reason, Temple and Ambrose's port engine burst into flames - their plane rolled to port, turned upside down, and dived into the sea. It instantly became apparent that a small ship about a mile away in the Strait of Bonifacio (between Corsica and Sardinia) had registered a lucky shot on their aircraft. My pilot (Ron Whitington) was furious and did his block (his very words later) and dived at the ship firing his four 20mm cannons. It, and a nearby smaller ship, kept firing at us in this short space of time. We were not hit, and left the ship in a shambles and lots of smoke."