Helen Maguire MP backs campaign to commemorate ‘Local Heroes’ from Second World War

Helen Maguire, Liberal Democrat MP for Epsom & Ewell, is backing the campaign to commemorate the brave pilots and navigators of the Photographic Reconnaissance Units (PRU) during the Second World War.

Photo Reconnaissance Units
The PRU was formed on the 24th of September 1939 and throughout the Second World War it operated highly dangerous, clandestine photographic reconnaissance operations over all theatres of operation, and captured more than 26 million images of enemy operations and installations during the war.

The purpose of the PRU was to provide up-to-date intelligence to strategically plan the Allied actions in the war. Flying Spitfires and Mosquitos, the intelligence it gathered was used by all the armed forces, giving same day intelligence on enemy activity.

The intelligence provided by the PRU was used in the Cabinet War Rooms – now the ‘Churchill War Rooms’ located underneath the Treasury – and was instrumental in the planning of major operations; D-Day and the Dambusters Raid, the monitoring of major shipping movements such as the Bismarck and Tirpitz, and the locating of the site of the V1 and V2 rocket launching site at Peenemünde.

Due to the clandestine nature of their operations – they flew solo operations, unarmed and unarmoured – the death rate was nearly fifty percent. However, despite having one of the lowest survival rates of the war – life expectancy in the PRU was around two and a half months – there is no national memorial to the PRU. 

The ‘Spitfire AA810 Project’ has therefore led the campaign to establish such a memorial to the PRU pilots and navigators.

Local Heroes:
Among those who served in the PRU were Frank Fray and William Poulter.

Frank Fray

Squadron Leader Frank Gerald ‘Jerry’ Fray DFC was born in Bristol on the 30th April 1920, the eldest of three children of Albert and Ellen Fray. With the family moving to Meadow Road in Ashtead he was educated at the City of London Freemen's School and became a Despatch Clerk upon leaving school. 

With war imminent in 1938 Jerry was keen to join the RAF but his parents were not happy with him becoming a pilot so he volunteered for the army and joined the Royal Engineers and was deployed as part of the BEF in France. Evacuated from Dunkirk he returned to the UK and volunteered for transfer to the RAF and his pilot training started in May 1940. 

After training in the UK he volunteered for Photographic Reconnaissance duties and after further training he arrived at No.1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit in June 1942. A little under a year later he would bring back the famous photographs of the successful Dambusters raid.

Frank would finish two operational tours and towards the end of the war he was posted to command RAF Squadrons in India and later in Germany as part of the occupation. Post war he served in the RAF Auxiliary and took postings abroad and desk jobs in Fighter Command and in RAF HQ Germany.

Married in 1942, he and his wife Verna had one daughter, Kathleen, born in 1947. Frank passed away on the 26th June 2003.

William Poulter
Flight Lieutenant William George Poulter was born in Leatherhead on the 28th January 1914 and a month later he was baptised at St. Mary & St. Nicholas in Leatherhead, Surrey. 

By the outbreak of war William Poulter was a stoker for a gas company and he was living in Portslade-by-Sea near Brighton. 

Enrolling in the RAF in August 1940, he trained to fly Spitfires in the RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Squadrons and by the end of the war he was serving in the Middle East. Post war he was a pilot for Racal Decca and flew Jetstream and HS125 aircraft in this role. It is believed that he passed away in the late 1960s.

Supporting the campaign Liberal Democrat MP for Epsom & Ewell, Helen Maguire, said:

“I am delighted to support the campaign to commemorate those who served in the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.

This includes Frank Fray and William Poulter, who served under exceptionally difficult conditions, and I would urge anyone who might have any more information on him to get in touch.

I look forward to working with the Spitfire AA810 Project to establish this memorial and to being able to pay my respects there once it is completed.”

If there is anyone related to or who Frank Fray or William Poulter, or if anyone know someone who served in the PRU during the war, please go the Spitfire AA810 Project website (www.spitfireaa810.co.uk), or get in touch with Tony Hoskins, Tony@spitfireaa810.co.uk.