An emotional plea has been launched for people to attend the funeral of an RAF engineer who died without any known family or friends.
Corporal William James Boles, from Falkirk, was only 61 when he died from cancer at his home in St Ives, Cornwall on June 17.
Lawyers handling his estate sparked the appeal after failing to track down any living relatives.
All that could be gleaned from William’s past was his service record in the Royal Air Force.
With no-one to attend his funeral, members of the RAF Association’s local branches in Falkirk plan to travel to Cambridge to pay their respects.
The force is now calling on sympathetic strangers and anyone who may have known William to join them at the service next week.
Joe Stanfield, area director for Scotland and Northern Ireland, RAF Association, said: “We are reaching out to the people of William’s hometown of Falkirk as we would like to encourage as many people as possible to join our members and attend his funeral this Wednesday.
“There have been a number of cases where ex-RAF personnel pass away with no known family or friends so sadly, William’s story is not unique.
“The RAF Association runs a befriending scheme, pairing volunteers with veterans who suffer from loneliness and isolation.
“We want to ensure every veteran is remembered and hope to give a fitting tribute to William’s service.”
Little is known about him other than that he was originally from Whitecross, Falkirk and attended Graeme High School.
William – or Bill – completed an apprenticeship at RAF Cosford in 1972 and then served for 11 years as an aircraft engineer, before retiring in 1981.
He has no known next of kin and generously left his estate to Dreamdrops, Huntingdonshire Children’s Charity.
The funeral of Corporal William James Bowles will take place on Wednesday, July 13 at 3.15pm at Cambridge Crematorium, Huntingdon Road, Cambridge CB3 0JJ.
