| Abstract | WW2 Memorial Profiles for Abberton and Langenhoe
ROBERT LESLIE COPPIN
Aircraftman 2nd Class, Service No. 1134494
6 Service Flying Training School, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Died 21 October 1941 age 27.
Buried Little Rissington (St Peter) Churchyard, Gloucester
Robert died with a number of other RAF & WAAF personnel, as a result of a bus crash, where the bus caught fire. This was in Cheltenham on the Andoversford Road, during the Second World War.
Robert was born 7 March 1914, the eldest son of George Clifford Neville and Ethel May Neville née Coppin, of Langenhoe, Essex. He had 4 brothers all of whom served in the Second World War and of whom Stanley also lost his life. Cyril served for 4½ years in India with the Queen's Own Royal West Kents. Bernard was to serve in India with the RAF. The other brother Leonard served at Thetford in Norfolk with the RAF. Stanley enlisted in the Essex Regiment, served in the Middle East, was captured and became a Prisoner of War. He died in an Allied bombing raid on the factory where he was being forced to work.
Wedding of Elsie Reynolds and Robert Coppin at West Mersea 25 December 1937
Robert married Elsie M. Reynolds in 1937. She was born in Peldon, daughter of William Thomas Reynolds and Harriet. By 1939 Robert and Elsie were living at Bungalow Cottage on the Causeway in Langenhoe, and he was a plasterer. They had a son, Michael. They were next door but one to George and Ethel Nevill, Robert's parents
Elsie remarried in 1946 - Harry Bernard Ponder, one of a large local family. Bernard worked as a storeman at Clarke & Carter on Mersea, and died in 1994 and Elsie in 2004.
He was entitled to the Defence Medal and the 1939-45 War Medal.
Robert is buried at Little Rissington (Saint Peter) Churchyard, Gloucestershire in Row E. Col. grave. This grave yard
contains some 50 to 60 graves of British, Canadian and Australian Airmen, who operated from the nearby airfield in
World War 2.
Robert was interred with five others in a communal grave. They are :-
| 1317209 | Aircraftman 2nd Class K. J. Fuller, RAFVR, aged 20. He was the son of Guy & Hestor Elizabeth Fuller of Mosterton, Dorsetshire. |
| 1084639 | Aircraftman 2nd Class John Baseley, RAFVR. He was the son of W.T. & Isobella Baseley, of Notting Hill, London |
| 1154921 | Corporal Sidney Francis Andrews, RAFVR aged 25. He was the son of Sidney & Lillian Andrews; and husband of Sheila Andrews of Ealing, Middlesex. |
| 52152 | Leading Aircraftman Harold Thomas Stokes, RAF aged 60. He was the husband of Laura Louise Stokes of Cheltenham. |
| 1525727 | Aircraftman 2nd Class Fred Poulter, RAFVR aged 36. He was the son of George & Fanny Poulter; and husband of Beatrice Poulter, of Wombwell, Yorkshire. |
| 1315853 | Leading Aircraftman Sydney George Peter Medwin (pilot under training) RAFVR aged 19. He was the son of Sydney & Florence Medwin of Cookham Berkshire. |
| 1331436 | Leading Aircraftman Michel Brady de Maynard (pilot under training) RAFVR |
REFERENCES
Information obtained from The Commonwealth War Graves web site. www.cwgc.org/
Photographs and information were also supplied by his family.
11 November 2000 written for repared by Saint Andrew's Parochial Church Council by Edwin Sparrow
11 November 2007 updated by Edwin Sparow
1 December 2020 formatted for web, more family information added by Tony Millatt
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