“We are saddened to hear that one of the very last WWII veteran members of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association, Harry Cammish of Orewa, passed away at 10.10pm on Sunday evening ( 15 Dec 24), aged 101.
Harry was British and served with the RAF. Harry trained as a flight engineer on Lancasters, posted to No. 50 Squadron. On the 25th February 1944 his aircraft was shot down by Fw190s and Harry bailed out. He was fortunate to meet a local station master, Monsieur Collin of Embermenil, who took him home. Monsieur Collin hid Harry in his bed with his wife, and then clothed Harry in railway uniform and got him started on a long path to evade the Germans and reach freedom. At the end this involved Harry making a solo climb over the Pyrenees to Spain. He then made it to Gibraltar and was taken back to Britain.
On his return to UK , he could not return to operations and eventually moved to Air Traffic Control until being demobbed.
Harry and his wife moved to NZ in the 1950s where he spent a lifetime as a builder. Well known in Orewa for his community work, Harry remained in the home he built till last year illness saw him go into care. Harry was an awesome chap and one of the stalwarts of the New Zealand Bomber Command Association in its heyday. He will be very much missed.
There will be no funeral but his family is planning for a memorial service for Harry to take place in the New Year. The NZBCA Veterans Officer Barbara Hunters says, “We always called Harry “the last man standing “as he was always the one well enough and mobile enough to attend our services and events, and l am sure at these events in the future we will have a chair with Harry’s name on to remember him.”
RIP Harrison Stanley Cammish.