Display honour for hero

A FORMER Chronicle reporter killed over the English Channel in World War II is to be honoured with an RAF memorial.

Spitfire pilot Sgt Alan Lever-Ridings — a trainee at the Chronicle in his teens, before he joined the RAF at 19 — was piloting his Spitfire fighter after escorting bombers over France when he was shot down off the Devon coast, three weeks before his 21st birthday.

The Middleton-born pilot, as well as RAF Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Command, are being jointly recognised with a memorial in Fairhaven, Fylde, on Friday.

The tribute features a replica of the original Spitfire, which was bought by the residents of Lytham and St Anne’s for £6,500 as part their contribution towards the war.

Sgt Lever-Ridings took charge of the “St Anne’s Spitfire” when he was assigned to 19 Squadron RAF fighter command.

The memorial project has been organised by a team of volunteers from the Lytham St Annes Spitfire Display Team who spent three years raising the £50,000 to pay for the memorial.