This Thursday the Queen will unveil a long overdue memorial to more than 55 thousand members of Bomber Command who lost their lives in the Second World War. The new memorial is sited in Green Park in London and more about it can be found here at the Bomber Command website:
www.bombercommand.com
With fantastic photos of the construction of the memorial here:
www.bombercommandmemorial.co.uk
A programme about the memorial and unveiling ('Bomber Command: A Tribute') will be screened on BBC2 at 1700h BST on Thursday 28 June, with a repeat at 2320h.
Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry was born in 1919 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, the son of Herbert and Helen Fitzhenry. He enlisted for the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1942 aged 22.
After training, he came to England and after flying with 156 Squadron, he joined 405 Squadron (Canadian Air Force) in 1944 based at Gransden Lodge airfield, Cambridgeshire.
At 1545h on 2 January 1945, as one of a crew of 7, his Lancaster bomber took off for the last time from England for a bombing mission over Nuremberg, Germany. The plane crashed at Rohrau near Nufringen.There were only 2 survivors.
Pilot Officer Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry is buried at Durnbach Cemetery. Posthumously, he was awarded the Permanent Path Finder Force Badge, a high honour in Bomber Command. More about the P.F.F. can be found here.
On Thursday we will remember Stanley Fitzhenry as one of the lost airmen of Bomber Command.
On-line service records and photo from the National Archives of Australia
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ListingReports/ItemsListing.aspx?series=A9300
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Teresa FitzHenry Hull has sent us an email to let us know of the recent death of Lindsay Roberts FitzHenry.
Lindsay was born in Myrtle Point, Oregon in 1940 and he died on 6th May 2012.
Teresa says despite his medical problems " he put up a good long fight".
Our thoughts and sympathies go to his family and friends.
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For our non-UK readers, this weekend marks the official celebrations of Queen Elizabeth II's diamond jubilee as 60 years as, amongst other things, the constitutional monarch of 16 independent Commonwealth countries and the British Crown Dependencies; head of the Commonwealth of 54 nations; Defender of the Faith (although when this title was bestowed upon Henry VIII, it was by the Pope as defender of the Roman Catholic Faith); and head of the Established Church of England.
To coincide with the Jubilee, the Royal Archives has released the papers documenting the names of people
who were employed by the royal household from 1660 to 1901 (Royal Household Index series 1660-1901). These are available on Findmypast.co.uk.
There are no Fitz-Henrys or Fitzhenrys mentioned, but there are two Fitzharrises: Ann Fitzharris and Judith Fitzharris. Both are mentioned in Establishment Book 13 **.
Each received a pension from the royal estate.
Ann was granted £50 from 1702. What she did in the household is not recorded. This was the year that Queen Anne (1702-1714) came to the throne. So this may indicate that Ann was a servant of Anne's predecessor William III (William of Orange), and was being "let go" with a change in the monarch who would have already had an established household.
Judith received a pension of £20 from 1704. Again, her role is not recorded.
What was this worth to these women? This excellent article at the Old Bailey's website explains that a female house servant would only be earning £2 or £3 a year at this time, and a skilled housekeeper would be earning in the region of £15 p.a. so this indicates that both these women were not just ordinary house servants.
This website is unreferenced*** , but states that you could buy 1400 acres of farm land in North Carolina for about 50 pounds around 1700.
I don't know whether these two women were related, which of the royal houses they worked at, or any more details about their lives. All information gratefully received!
* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_II
**Royal Archives, Establishment Book of the Royal Household vol 13, RA/EB/EB/13
*** wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_was_50_pounds_in_the_1700's_compared_to_dollars_now
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Stanley Herbert Fitzhenry was born in 1919 in Richmond, Victoria, Australia, the son of Herbert and Helen Fitzhenry. He enlisted for the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1942 aged 22. 
