Hidden photo of unknown uncle inspires book

Phil Le Brocq found a photo of a young man in RAF uniform which proved to be his uncle Pete

A man from Jersey has written a book about an uncle he did not know he had.

Phil Le Brocq discovered photographs of a young man wearing RAF uniform tucked away in a cupboard at his parents' home.

“I asked my father who it was and he said it was his brother,“ Phil said.

Pete Le Brocq had never been spoken about because his mother was so upset at his death during World War Two, soon after his 21st birthday.

Pete Le Brocq joined the RAF before he turned 16

Phil set out to trace his uncle’s story and 35 years later has retold it in his book, No Time.

Pete Le Brocq dreamt of becoming a pilot while he was a pupil at Jersey’s Victoria College.

Before the German occupation of the Channel Islands he persuaded his mother to evacuate to the UK and joined the RAF before he turned 16.

Within a year he had qualified as a sergeant pilot and flew 39 missions, mostly in the Middle-East, in Wellington bombers over the next two years.

That tour of duty should have allowed Pete a rest from flying, but Phil said he simply moved on to aircraft carrying out torpedo attacks on German shipping, through D-Day and beyond.

Pete Le Brocq was flying in a Bristol Beaufighter when the aircraft crashed on a runway in Lincolnshire

On the ground he sketched to take his mind off the stress of his missions. As a boy he had been taught by Jersey’s most famous artist, Edmund Blampied.

In July 1944 Pete took his sketchbook home. He told his mother he feared that his time was near and that she should not cry if he died in action.

The day after he returned to duty, taking off on another mission, Pete’s Bristol Beaufighter lost an engine and crashed on a Lincolnshire runway when its under-carriage collapsed.

Pete’s navigator was dragged clear from the flames, but he became trapped in the cockpit and no-one could reach him.

“He was so young," Phil said. "I felt that I had to tell his story."

Pete Le Brocq was 21 years old when he died