Official naming of RAFA Club lounge in memory of highly respected RAF veteran

17/03/2023

pic: RAF Association Banbury Branch & Branch Club

The Ken Handley Lounge will be opened by Mr Handley’s son

The official reopening of the refurbished Ground Floor Bar area at Banbury’s RAFA Club is taking place tomorrow evening.  

The ground floor social area at Newland House on Broad Street is set to be dedicated in honour and remembrance of an RAF veteran from Cropredy who was one of the last survivors of D-Day. 

Ken Handley passed away in February at the age of 98.   His life and achievements were celebrated during a service at the church of St Mary the Virgin in Cropredy on Monday.

Mr Handley joined up as a 17-year-old during the Second World War.   Three years later, in 1944, he travelled to Normandy in the wake of the D-Day landings.   As part of a fully armed RAF signals unit he was tasked with giving communications support to air forces as they advanced.

The Dutch government presented Mr Handley with a Liberator’s Medal in 2021 in recognition of the part he played in the liberation of the Dutch people in the final year of the war.

Tomorrow evening Mr Handley’s son Brian will cut a ribbon on behalf of the family to open the Ken Handley Lounge at Newland House.


Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam

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