THE family of Bolton “Dambuster” Stanley Richardson has seen the fearless airman’s medals for the first time.

Flt Sgt Stanley Richardson, of Ringley Road, Kearsley, gave his life just one month before the famous “Dambusters” raid of May, 1943.

His unworn medals went on display at Bolton Library earlier this year — and collector Bill Holden appealed for more information about the brave flyer, after struggling to trace his family.

Stanley’s brothers-in-law, Peter and Ken Fulton, contacted The Bolton News and this week they met Mr Holden to see the medals and tell the amateur historian more about their brave relative.

Peter, aged 82, said: “I’m quite moved. We didn’t know Stanley very well. But I remember him as a charming man. I probably only met him two or three times but I remember seeing him in his uniform.”

Stanley married Hilda, Peter and Ken’s sister, in 1941. The couple met while Hilda was still at Farnworth Grammar School and she lived with her family in Moses Gate, Farnworth.

Sadly, Hilda, who was just 19 when she married the flight engineer, died 10 years ago. She never saw her late husband’s medals.

Ken, aged 74, added: “This puts it all into context what happened to Stanley and what he must have been through. I was only six at the time. You don’t really understand as a child. Hilda would be very proud to see this. Very upset too, very emotional.”

The RAF’s 617 Squadron deployed bouncing bombs to target three dams in the Ruhr valley and cause catastrophic flooding to Germany’s industrial heartland. But in the weeks before the famous raids, attacks on the Ruhr region were already taking place.

Water supplies and weapons factories were being hit by 44 Squadron, but in one of those raids, Stanley’s Lancaster Bomber — KMYIED 351 — was hit. Stanley’s last flight departed England just before 9pm on April 8, 1943, from Waddington, Lincolnshire, on a mission to the Ruhr valley. The target was a weapons factory in Duisburg but just after midnight, German night fighters and anti-aircraft guns shot down the Lancaster bomber, killing Stanley and six other crew members.

Ken and Peter were also able to give Mr Holden a copy of a photograph of Stanley and Hilda.

Mr Holden said: “It is fantastic how everything has come together. I’m absolutely delighted with the photograph and it is good to learn more about Stanley. He was very much a forerunner to the Dambusters.”

Stanley’s medals and photograph, along with the Second World War medals of many more brave men from Bolton, are on display all month at the library in Le Mans Crescent.