TILLEY
with roots in Somerset, England
family
the
Wilfrid Bruce Tilley
Wilfrid Bruce Tilley was born on 31 August 1913 to Edward Tom Tilley (1878-1961) and Ada Margaret Look (1880-1970). Bruce married Jennie Earnshaw (1917-72), who was born in Todmorden, Lancashire, in 1945 and they had two children, Giles Earnshaw and Folla Earnshaw Christie.
Bruce turned his back on farming (until later in life buying a Kent fruit farm) and emigrated to South Africa, working at first in the gold mines and then traveling north to Southern Rhodesia to mine his own gold. The Second World War intervened and he joined the Rhodesian Air Force and then the South African Air Force, and later the Royal Air Force, where he flew Mosquitoes on reconnaissance missions over Europe and the Middle East. He served as a flight captain, winning the DFC for his missions over Germany and the Middle East (he once lost his way and his compass bearings over the Turkish coast, turned left instead of right – he was based in Rhodes – and made an emergency landing in Beirut!).
Bruce's first wife, Jennie, was petite and pretty but she was also rather brainy. She had a degree from Oxford and worked for MI5 (at Blenheim Palace) during the war. She was married to a fighter pilot (Harold Turner) and they had a son, Rodney. Her first husband was killed in action flying out of Malta on a mission over Italy in 1944. Jennie and Bruce met at a dance in England and they married in Loxton church. She travelled out to Africa on a troopship, the Capetown Castle, to join Bruce in Rhodesia. Bruce had gone back to South Africa alone to be demobbed. When they returned to England, Jennie's father Henry Earnshaw helped them set up a restaurant in Southport, presumably so that they had some means of support. They owned the business and according to Bruce did rather well out of it.
He passed away on 24 July 2002, aged 88. Bruce's funeral service took place at St Mary's Church in Berrow near Weston-super-Mare.
Mosquito A135. Bruce is seated 2nd row extreme left.
"C" Flight taken at their dispersal on Lakatamia aerodrome, Cyprus. Bruce is seated front row sixth from left, with 2nd/Lt Les Lomas, Flight Commander 1st/Lt Len Mellor among others.
Bruce is in the centre, the location is unknown.
No. 680 Squadron RAF in which Bruce served was formed in February 1943 from 'A' Flight of No. 2 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU), equipped with a variety of aircraft including Supermarine Spitfires, Hawker Hurricanes, Bristol Beaufighters and Lockheed Electras. It continued in the photographic reconnaissance role, operating in North Africa and the Mediterranean. In early 1944, the unit converted to Martin Baltimores and de Havilland Mosquitoes, deploying to Sicily and Sardinia later in the year. After the end of the war, 680 Squadron flew surveying missions in the Middle East, before being disbanded by renumbering it to No. 13 Squadron RAF on 1 September 1946. The Mosquito was used as a night fighter, fighter bomber, bomber and photo-reconnaissance, with a crew of two. Maximum speed was 425 mph, at 30,300 ft, 380mph at 17,000ft, and a ceiling of 36,000ft, maximum range 3,500 miles. The Mosquito was armed with four 20mm Hospano cannon in belly and four .303 inch browning machine guns in nose. The Mossie at it was known made its first flight on 25 November 1940. The Mosquito stayed in service with the Royal Air Force until 1955 and a total of 7,781 Mosquitos were built.
Bruce with his second wife, Miki (Muriel Veronica Frances Bevis), who he married in 1973.
Bruce Tilley passed away on 24 July 2002, aged 88.
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![Bruce married Jennie Earnshaw at Norman Hotel, Cheddar, Somerset, in 1945. Top, from left: Ursula Tilley, Edward (Ted) Tom Tilley, Zena Tilley, Rachel Tilley, the bride's father, Henry Earnshaw. Front, from left: Ada Margaret [nee Look] Tilley, Richard (Dick) Tilley, Bruce, the bride Jennie, the bride's sister, Barbara Brown [nee Earnshaw], and the bride's mother, Harriet Earnshaw](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/ffca98_8aa720c3e8a849f8a05740224f9d6c98~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_388,h_288,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/Wilfrid%20Bruce%20Tilley%20wedding%20-%20web.jpg)
Bruce married Jennie Earnshaw at Norman Hotel, Cheddar, Somerset, in 1945. Top, from left: Ursula Tilley,
Edward (Ted) Tom Tilley, Zena Tilley, Rachel Tilley, the bride's father, Henry Earnshaw.
Front, from left: Ada Margaret [nee Look] Tilley, Richard (Dick) Tilley, Bruce, the bride Jennie, the bride's sister,
Barbara Brown [nee Earnshaw], and the bride's mother, Harriet Earnshaw.
Bruce's Distinguished Flying Cross as well as his Africa campaign medals.
Bruce's DFC as reported in the Supplement to the London Gazette of 12 June 1945 in recognition of gallantry and devotion to duty in the execution of air operations.
Bruce's ID card. Presumably issued when he was seconded to the RAF (because of late date). For a man who was painfully honest it is interesting to note that his date of birth is inaccurate. Someone appears to have shaved two years off his age. One cannot help suspecting that Bruce was the culprit - perhaps he was worried that he was too old for pilot training. But who knows?
Wilfrid Bruce
b. 31 Aug 1913
d. 24 Jul 2002
married 1945
Jenny Earnshaw
b. 21 Jul 1917
d. 28 May 1972
Robert George
Barbara Helen Margaret
Wilfrid Bruce
Richard Ernest Corpe
Hugh Harold John
Rachel Penelope
Ursula Dorothy
Folla Earnshaw Christie
b. 4 Jul 1947
Giles Earnshaw
b. 2 Feb 1953
married
Dawn Fraser
b. Aug 1962
Memories
“I visited him at the farm before setting off for a job in Munich and Bruce smiled when I asked him if he knew Munich. He went to his small office, rummaged around and returned with a stack of aerial photographs he had taken on missions over Germany. 'I suppose you could say I knew Munich,’ he said wryly! Bruce married a petite, pretty girl called Jennie. They ran a restaurant in an English resort and Bruce was recruited in. But he was an outdoor type quite unsuited to that kind of work and they later divorced. Bruce then bought a fruit farm near Wrotham in Kent and lived a lonely life there until taking up with a local woman who adored him with almost embarrassing ardour. She was simplicity itself but a good soul and always very welcoming.”