Montgomery: Robert

1938-1939: Did not play first team football. (Leeds Player Details)

Centre Forward

Born: Aston, Birmingham: 00-00-1922

Debut: None

Height & Weight: Unknown

Montgomery was born in Aston, Birmingham but was educated at Sligo Grammar School, in Connaught, Northern Ireland, where he excelled both academically and on the sporting field, being a member of The Connacht Rugby Team, for which he was awarded a velvet cap which was later sold at Auction. After leaving the Grammar School he started playing football for Irish club, Portadown. He showed great promise as a centre-forward and caught the eye of Billy Hampson the Leeds United manager. He signed professional forms for Leeds United on 8th September 1938, when only sixteen. He did not play for the Leeds First Division side, but played four games as a centre-forward for the club's Reserve and also played for the club's other teams with great success before the outbreak of the Second World War and won a Yorkshire Football League runner-up medal in the 1938-39 season, which was also later auctioned. He lived in Beeston, close to the Leeds United Football Ground and collected autographs of the Leeds United team and their opponents in the 1938-39 season and kept a scrapbook of his life at Leeds United and the team he played for, which again was later sold at auction. In the 1939-40 season he joined Coventry City as a War-time guest. He joined the RAF in 1941, and was sent to Canada where he received training as a pilot. Subsequently he went to Georgia U.S.A where he qualified and received his wings. He then returned to England and became attached to a squadron of Lancaster bombers with the 49th Squadron at Fiskerton, near Lincoln. He took part in many operational flights over enemy, and enemy-occupied territory, as a Sergeant pilot. He was commisioned a few months before he was shot down. Robert Montgomery was killed in action while leading a heavy bombing attack by Lancasters on Schweinfurt Southern Germany on the night of 26th/27th April 1944. It was the crew's nineteenth mission. The crew of the Lancaster JB679 were: P/O R. Montgomery Pilot, Sgt R.J. Boyce F/E, F/S S. Smith NAV, Sgt T. Parkin W/AG, P/O R.F. Cluff RCAF B/A who were the flight crew and the two Gunners Sgt R.J. Mitchell A/G and F/S J. Baker RAAF A/G. The Lancaster was shot down at 00.57am on the morning of 27th April 1944, and crashed near Bere, nineteen kilometers south of Ligny and thirty kilometers from St Dizier. Robert Montgomery and all members of the flight crew were killed on impact, while the two Gunners, who were able to parachute out, survived, F/S Baker being taken prisoner, and Sgt Mitchell escaping through France and arriving in Switzerland on 20th June 1944, from where he was repatriated to England on 6th September 1944. P/O Robert Montgomery and four fellow members of his crew are buried in Bure Churchyard, Meuse. He was only Twenty-two when he was killed.(Special thanks to Neil Roche, who contributed much to this joint effort.).