Ronald Charles Hargrave

Ronald Charles Hargrave was a Sergeant in the Royal Air Force, service number 580775. CWGC records his death on 6 June 1940, aged 25, and burial at Geervliet (Simonshaven) Protestant Churchyard in the Netherlands. Martin’s Aviation Pages gives a matched early-war loss narrative for the night of 5/6 June 1940 and records that George Peacock and Ronald Hargrave are buried at Geervliet, fitting the CWGC place and date. The Gazette notice and RAFCommands awards search connect Hargrave with a Mention in Despatches, published in May 1940, just before his death. Aircrew Remembered’s exact-name casualty index provides another identity check. Taken together, the sources place him among the aircrew lost during the first months of Bomber Command’s war over the Netherlands, with official recognition already recorded before the operation from which he did not return. These records tie the same name to the same service number, award trail and casualty date, reducing the risk of confusing him with another airman of similar name.