70 years later, family learns fate of lost RAF airman from World War II

Under the floorboards, construction workers remodelling a home found a series of letters documenting the dramatic final minutes of a Second World War RAF airman, and they set out on a mission to reconnect him with his family. They passed the records to a local historian who requested the assistance of the Daily Mail after being unsuccessful in locating the family of Sergeant Norman Tinsley, a radio operator who died on a bombing mission only months before the war's end. More than 70 years after the airman's valiant death, they have now been able to present the tattered manila envelope containing more than 30 telegrams, handwritten messages of condolence, and photographs to his shocked family.

The airman was on his "sixth operational mission against the enemy," according to a letter from Sgt. Tinsley's 550 Squadron commander, and was a "popular" and "efficient and skilled wireless operator" who would be "greatly missed." After receiving the letters, The Mail's experts learned that Sgt Tinsley's mother had a brother named Joseph, whose two granddaughters, Sandra Colls, 62, and her sister Gillian Carter, 69, still reside close to Bury. Theywere thrilled to give them the missing letters, which had been found by Joseph's family.

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The women were aware of his sister Nora, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 79, but they were unaware of her brother's selfless act. "It's just such a surprise to find out all this after all these years," Mrs Carter said. It's very moving. It truly drives home how much these young men sacrificed for us. The letters were discovered by Sandra Burke, 79, whose late builder husband Brian said: "When I started to read them, they touched my heart." Her brother Ernest died while serving in Germany when I was only two years old. He and Norman shared the same age. It has brightened herday that the Daily Mail has located his family.

(with inputs from agencies)