Joseph Patrick Leavy

C. 1922-1923 – 11/01/1945 – aged 22

Aloysius O’Brien, known as Allan, was born in West Gorton. He came to St Bede’s on the 16th September 1934, leaving in 1939 and  underwent teacher training. 

Alann’s teaching career was cut short when he was conscripted into the RAF Volunteer Reserve, where he trained as a Navigator in Scotland. On the 11th January 1945, he was on board Wellington Bomber X LR140-U, which took off with a crew of five. At about 23.20, the plane lost height and dived into the sea, some five hundred yards off the airfield. Allan’s body was washed up on a local beach, so his body was returned to his parents. He was buried at Southern Cemetery. As late as 1949, his mother was still putting a loving in Memoriam Notice to her beloved son in The Manchester Evening News. Alann was twenty-two years old.