Healing's War Grave - Cyril Porri

As I was looking through the graveyard at Healing church today, I found another war grave. I was surprised by this, as I thought I would quickly find all the war graves in such a small churchyard. The reason for this is that the CWGC cleans and maintains the graves, so they are usually bright white, often with a little red poppy.

As you can see, this one is not, and is covered in dirt and mould. The inscription reads:

"Group Captain

CYRIL PORRI

Observer

Royal Air Force

(Retired)

23rd May 1950, Age 57."

This would explain why he is not listed with the CWGC (as he was retired), however, why he was buried with a military headstone. Searching through archives and records, I've found some newspaper clippings of Group Captain Porri's rise through the ranks:

THE LONDON GAZETTE, 1 JANUARY, 1929.

Note that the same person, Frederic Stammers, O.B.E is listed with Porri:

THE LONDON GAZETTE, 31 DECEMBER, 1935

Can we safely assume the two men were both friends? 

Having checked the census records, we can see that Porri was born in 1893, was 18 at the time of the 1911 census, and he lived in Grimsby. 

Lest we forget,

James