Reginald Crosby Mocock was not a Lustleigh boy, but born in Japan in 1922 where his father was an executive. When they returned in the 1930s, the family settled in the village at Long Tor.
He joined the RAF volunteer reserve in 1940, not long after his 18th birthday and in 1942 found himself with 75 Squadron in Newmarket. Originally, the squadron had been specifically assigned to the New Zealand Air Force, consisted of Kiwi personnel and was known as the New Zealand Flight. However, when they transitioned from Wellingtons to Stirlings, they needed two extra crew – a flight engineer and a bomb aimer and RAF personnel were called upon to fulfil those roles: Reggie taking on the latter.
In December 1942, he took part in a night bombing raid on Germany targeted with dropping single 1,000lb bombs on a military production facility in Lower Saxony. Having failed to locate their targets due to bad weather, things got a whole lot worse on their way home when they came under fierce attack from enemy aircraft which downed 4 out of the 5 planes from 75 Squadron including Reggie’s. He and his crew were initially buried in a local cemetery with full military honours, but later re-interred at Rheinberg War Cemetery near Cologne.
A more detailed biography can be found in the Lustleigh Society’s new book “Home Front to Front Line” which recounts various aspect of the village during WW2 and is available from The Dairy, the Archives and at Lustleigh Society events.
On Wednesday 17th December 2025, Lustleigh Bell Ringers will sound a half-muffled peel in his honour.