South Yorkshire Times, December 11th 1943
Brampton Officer Decorated
D.F.C. For Saving “Ship” And Crew
Pilot Officer Wilfred Beaumont (22), only son of Mr. and Mrs. A. Beaumont, 60, Concrete Cottages, Wombwell, returned to his unit from leave a fortnight ago to discover that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He has been engaged on operations as a wireless operator and gunner and has made many trips over enemy country, including Berlin, Mannheim, Cologne and Turin. On a recent trip his plane was brought safely back under conditions of extreme difficulty. His Pilot has also been decorated. Pilot Officer Beaumont is an old boy of Park Street and Modern School, Wombwell, and before joining was employed in a local insurance office. He was commissioned last August and recently became engaged to Miss Heather Mundy, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Mundy of “Winston,” St. Stephen’s Road, Bridlington.
The official citation, giving the circumstances under which P.O. Beaumont won the award states “On the night of 23rd-24th August 1943, Pilot Officer Beaumont was the wireless operator in an aircraft detailed to attack Berlin. While over enemy territory the intercommunication system was rendered useless, but P.O. Beaumont successfully repaired the system while still in a heavily defended area. His action was the direct cause of the successful completion of the sortie and the safe return of the aircraft and crew.
In addition, Pilot Officer Beaumont has successfully completed 26 operational sorties against heavily defended targets, all of them in Germany with the exception of one in Italy and two France. By his skill and devotion to duty he has contributed materially to the success of the sorties upon which he was engaged. “He has also maintained a consistently high standard in the more hum-drum work of training wireless operators on his squadron.”
Pilot Officer Beaumont is the first man in Brampton Bierlow to win a decoration in this war.