IT’S one of those stories that you just couldn’t make up and, even if you did, no one would really believe you.

It might read a bit like an idea for a TV drama, but the difference, on this occasion at least, is it is all absolutely true.

For me the events start at the altar of the ancient parish church of St Mary the Virgin, Burnham-on-Crouch.

Picture the scene. It is Saturday, June 22, 1946, and the vicar, the Rev Williams, is conducting one of a number of post-war wedding ceremonies.

Before him is a debonair, 36-year-old, uniformed RAF wing commander with a chest full of medals.

Next to him is a beautiful young bride, some ten years younger.

As the happy couple retire to sign the register, one of the witnesses (also in a highly decorated RAF uniform) seems to have some trouble walking.

All is revealed when the witness signs his name in the book – 'Douglas Bader'.

This famous national icon of the Battle of Britain had known the groom, Wing Commander Geoffrey Dalton Stephenson, since their Cranwell days back in the late Twenties.

Both had been serving with 23 Squadron when Bader experienced the horrific crash that resulted in the loss of both legs.

Despite that tragedy, we know that Bader went on to serve with distinction during the Second World War – but then so did Stephenson.

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

  • The Parish Church of St Mary where Geoffrey Stephenson got married

Geoffrey Stephenson was shot down on May 26, 1940, during the evacuation of Dunkirk.

His Mk.1a Spitfire (N3200) ended up on a beach at Sangatte, near Calais, and he was captured.

The following year, in the August of 1941, Bader bailed out over German-occupied France and also became a prisoner of war.

Both men made various attempts to escape captivity and, as a result, they were ultimately reunited in the surroundings of the impenetrable Colditz Castle.

Following their repatriation from Colditz in April 1945, Stephenson was appointed commanding officer of our local airfield, RAF Bradwell Bay.

He arrived there on June 25 and continued in post until the November, supervising its gradual closure.

During those doubtless happier and more relaxed six months, he was visited by his mate, Bader.

The station’s diary records one such occasion: “14/11/45; G/Capt D Bader, DSO, DFC, landed in a Proctor”.

I have also interviewed a local resident who remembers serving Bader tea at a Bradwell garden party during Stephenson’s tenure.

As well as spending time with his old friend, Stephenson found time to explore the neighbourhood and at some point met a young widow who hailed from nearby Burnham.

Anne Jean Maureen Menzies (née Booth) had first married James Francis George Menzies in 1941 and they had a daughter.

Menzies was a fascinating character whose real name was Jean François Georges Mennesson. Born in France he had become a British citizen and bravely served with the clandestine SOE – the Special Operations Executive.

Whilst on a secret mission, code named ‘Birch’, he was captured, tortured and mercilessly executed by the Nazis on March 23, 1945, in Flossenburg concentration camp.

Maureen, as she preferred to be known, lived with her family in Burnham, where her father, Sir Paul Malone Booth, was a well respected businessman who ran the Booth and Brookes Iron Foundry.

The Booth’s grand Burnham residences included variously Glanmere, Hill House and The Limes.

There must have been much rejoicing when Maureen again found happiness and married Bradwell’s last CO.

The couple went on to have three children, but tragedy struck again when Maureen’s second husband, Geoffrey, by then an air commodore, was killed on November 8, 1954, flying a F-100 Super Sabre jet in Florida, USA.

He lies buried a long way from Bradwell and Burnham, in the Oakwood Annex cemetery, Montgomery, Alabama, the RAF crest on his grave, along with a line from Matthew: “Lo I am with thee, even unto the end” (28:20).

Maldon and Burnham Standard:

  • Geoffrey Stephenson's Spitefire was shot down over France

He was just 44 years old, but what an adventurous life he had.

But that isn’t quite the end, for there is an equally amazing sequel to this true story. In 1986, strong currents washed away the sands of Sangatte beach to reveal the remains of Geoffrey Stephenson’s Spitfire.

Although it had lain there since 1940, it was recovered, painstakingly restored and returned to the air, some 74 years later, in 2014.

Wouldn’t it be great if one day we heard the distinctive roar of its Rolls Royce Merlin as it did a low flypast over his old aerodrome and the riverside town church where he once married his beloved Maureen.