Sapper Findlay

I decided to go to Reading Cemetery today. I have lived here for 30 yrs and have been lucky enough never to have been before. This grave is probably the first one you see as you go through the gate. It bought tears to my eyes as it reads:-

Sapper Harold William Atkinson Findlay R.E.
Aged 27
Dearly loved and only son of May Hawkins
Killed in an air crash whilst being repatriated on May 6th 1945 after surviving as a prisoner of war for 5 years.

I thought of poor May who was no doubt ecstatic that her only son was finally coming home after 5 years of hell. And then being told this dreadful news. And all this just 2 days before the Allies accepted Germanys surrender. Such cruelty!