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St Oswald's Churchyard.War Graves. In the churchyard there are twenty two Commonwealth War Graves and three Polish War Graves. click here to see a list of all twenty two Commonwealth Graves. Seventeen of the graves are individually spread around the churchyard and the remaining eight are clustered together in one small area. The individual graves are no doubt of Filey folk or of families with Filey connections. For quite some time I have been intrigued by the small plot of eight war graves. Why in Filey Churchyard? What was the story? I asked and was even asked several times if I knew the story, as I read the inscriptions on gravestones. The story remained a mystery until I came across the excellent web site dedicated to the casualties of Filey from both world wars. (see Links)  The three Polish war graves are those of Polish soldiers stationed at Pickering (North Yorkshire) all of whom died on 5th June 1944 from multiple injuries as a result of an accidental explosion at their base. They were Serz E.Berych, age 31; Kpl C.Grochowski ,age 41; and Sap A.Michalik, age 27. Why were they buried at Filey? The web site mentioned above offers an explanation that Polish refugees were housed in Filey during the war. A correspondent who read an earlier edition of this piece writes "We lived at 5 Melville Terrace during the war and were the only civilian family in the road. We were surrounded by French and Polish service men". This comment adds further understanding as to why the Polish soldiers came to be buried in Filey churchyard.  Two of the graves are of army personnel: Private S.I.Bennet of The Kings Own Regiment, who died 16th April 1941 age 32; and of Private W.I.D.Jarvis, of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, who died on 24th October 1940 at Filey whilst convalescing, which suggests that Filey was used for the recuperation of military personnel during the war.  The three remaining graves are those of the members of the crew of a Royal Air Force bomber that was lost in April 1942. Previously it was believed that the aircraft had ditched in Filey Bay. Recent research, however, has proved that the crew were from an aircraft that crashed into a plantation on the Yorkshire Wolds, near the village of Fordon, on 10th April 1942. The research was carried out by Lee Norgate of Filey who, under MOD licence, excavated part of the crash site and found several interesting remaining pieces of the aircraft, and most significantly that part that bore the manufactures prefix number with the type code, which identified the aircraft as a Vickers Wellington Mk. III. Subsequent further research identified the aircraft as BK257 that left its base at RAF Thornaby on a cross-country exercise on that fateful day. The crew became lost in worsening weather and when the aircraft dropped below the cloud formation to get a fix on its position the pilot realising that they were too low tried to regain height but in doing so the aircraft stalled and dropped rapidly to earth, ploughed into the plantation and killed all five of the crew. The bodies of Sergeant J. Ferguson and Sergeant J.A. Fox were returned to their hometowns for burial; the other three crew members Sergeant R.G.MacDonald, Royal Air Force, age 33; Sergeant B.H. Sparrow, Royal Canadian Air Force, age 20; and Flight Sergeant D.R.T.Robertson, Royal Canadian Air Force, age 21. are buried in the churchyard. 
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