Doncaster: Shenstone and Longmoor Farm May - July 1943

RAF Sergeant Keith Doncaster relaxes on leave in a Derbyshire garden, a peaceful homecoming far removed from the terrors of nightly bombing raids.

Ivan Keith Doncaster was the only son of Ray and Evelyn Doncaster. This relaxed family film captures him at home at Sandiacre in Derbyshire enjoying leave in the early summer of 1943. A rear gunner for 166 Squadron he was posted to RAF Kirmington in Lincolnshire. On the night of 22 October 1943 his Lancaster was shot down over Germany during a raid on the town of Kassel. There were no survivors. He was twenty years old. A poignant film that 'tells' a common story from this period.

The memory of Sergeant Ivan Keith Doncaster is commemorated with a stained glass window at St Giles Church in Sandiacre.