Searching for Jacqueline Bush, born October 1922, formerly of 23 Beaumont Close, Gidea Park, Romford

Can anyone help? I am trying to find out about Jacqueline Bush, who was friends with John Crossman and Billy Pattullo of 46 Squadron in the last weeks of their lives in 1940.

 

18-year-old Jacqueline Bush of 23 Beaumont Close, Gidea Park, Romford, was a happy, carefree young woman with a great sense of fun. In September 1940 she met Australian John Crossman and Chilean-born Billy Pattullo, known to Jacqueline and his squadron friends as Pat. Both had recently been posted to 46 Squadron at Stapleford Tawney.

John Crossman

 

Billy Pattullo 

John and Billy were very busy in the last weeks of September. Jacqueline’s heart ached for them. ‘They used to be flying at dawn...and they often weren’t off duty until 10.00 p.m.’ When the young pilot-officers could grasp a few hours relief they met up with their new friend. They sped about in John’s car, the three of them squashed in the front seat, Jacqueline feeling ‘proud as a peacock’ sitting between her handsome escorts. They cracked jokes and told stories, laughing madly in an effort to forget the serious business of fighting. ‘What fun we had’, Jacqueline recalled. ‘We used to tear around and just shriek at the most idiotic things—just like three kids.’

 

On 30 September John was killed in battle. His Hurricane crashed in flames at Tablehurst Farm, Forest Row. Jacqueline was still grieving for her friend when Billy’s Hurricane was badly damaged in battle on 25 October and, while attempting to land, he struck a house in Harold Park. He died from injuries the next day.

 

Jacqueline had known John and Billy for such a short time but greatly missed her ‘charming, attractive and gallant’ friends. She recalled that ‘we didn’t have much time together but what we did have was glorious.’

 

On the first anniversary of John’s death Jacqueline wrote to his family and told them about the great friendship he, Billy and she had shared and the happiness of John’s last days. She kept in touch and years later told the Crossmans that she could ‘still see him standing there in the moonlight’ on that last night. ‘Smiling and looking really happy. I always want to remember him just like that.’ Thanks to Jacqueline, that is how John’s family was able to remember him.

 

I would like to know about Jacqueline Bush’s background, her brief but glorious friendship with two young pilots who died in the Battle of Britain, and the ‘what happened next’ in her life. So far I have discovered that Jacqueline M and her twin sister Jeanne B Bush of Romford born in October 1922. Their mother’s maiden name was Lane. Their father was in the army and, in March 1943, was stationed in San Francisco, in charge of troop movements. There were only four in the family. Mrs Bush was very ill in the latter part of 1942 and Jacquie moved back home to Beaumont Close. Jacquie had a serious accident when she was knocked down by a lorry in early 1943. She had a badly lacerated scalp and would be subject to bad headaches probably all her life. She had trained in aircraft inspection but after the accident could not stand the noise so would have to look to some other war work. She had not come up with anything by March 1943. She was very anti-rushed marriage in wartime. (It was one of her little hobby horses.) She believed that many of the girls who married in haste in wartime would have a shock when their husbands came home. She said that she would never marry while the war is on. Attitudes change over time but she was not married in March 1943 and it seemed a strongly held stance so I would not expect to see a marriage for her before the war was over!

 

Ancestry.com indicates that a Jacqueline Bush married someone called Field or Ehrenfeld in Chelsea London in March 1950 a Jacqueline Bush married an Elliott in Bromley Kent in March 1957. Ancestry also indicates a marriage of Jeanne B Bush to a Kennedy in September 1944 in Romford and also another in 1955 to a Courtney in Romford. But I don’t know if these marriages relate to John’s and Pat’s young friend and or her sister.

 

If anyone knows what happened to Jacqueline or knows someone from her family, please get in touch with me at alexfax@alexanderfaxbooks.com.au