Hampden X2920 near Hartoft, Rosedale Abbey.

A 61 Squadron Hampden at Hemswell being bombed up prior to an operational flight. My thanks to Mr D'Arcy-Wright for this photograph.

Five Hampdens from 61 Squadron took off from their base at Hemswell in Lincolnshire around 19.00hrs on the 5th of October 1940, this specific aircraft took off at 19.09hrs. The weather on this evening was noted as "extremely bad, with gale blowing, icing and low cloud as well as rain" in the unit ORB. The crew were tasked with dropping mines in the "Eglantine" area at the Elbe Estuary. However, only three aircraft were sucessful in this and the other had to jettison before making the return leg of the journey. Due to the bad weather over England their home airfield had become unservicable through mud and the crew of this aircraft was ordered to divert north to another airfield (thought to be Leeming in Yorkshire). For reasons unknown, although presumed to be through bad visibility, the Hampden crashed on the North Yorkshire Moors, just east of Rosedale Abbey village with the loss of all on board. Almost certainly hopelessly lost in cloud at the time of the crash they are thought to have been flying roughly in a south-easterly direction. The aircraft first clipped the ground close to the Egton to Rosedale road and lost its propellers, this road was close to the highest part of the ridge. The aircraft continued for about half a mile and crashed some way down the moor from its first impact. Due to the location of where the crash occured, which was very close to a road, it is thought that almost all of the aircraft was removed in the days after the crash.

The crew had only been together for six days, all but the pilot having being crewed up on the 30th of September but with Sgt Oakley as pilot. Four days before their fatal crash, four aircraft from 61 Squadron, including P/O Wright and this crew had attacked an oil refinery in Hamburg, however P/O Wright had returned early from the trip due to radio trouble.

Hampden X2920 was built to contract B994449/39 by E.E.C. Ltd. at Salmesbury and after delivery to MU in August 1940 it was issued to 61 Squadron at Hemswell. It was written off with Cat.W/FB damage being recorded in the above incident on 6th October 1940.

Pilot - P/O Gerald D'arcy-Wright RAF (40162), aged 25, of ? Buried Leeming Churchyard, Yorkshire. Served as "Wright".

Obs - Sgt William A Cannon RAFVR (746801), aged 28, of Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex. Buried South Shoebury, Shoeburyness, Essex (grave 595).

AG - Sgt Walter B Rayment RAFVR (751840), aged 26, of Henfield, Sussex. Buried Henfield, Sussex.

WOp/AG - Sgt Alan Algar RAFVR (970031), aged 19, of Derby. Buried Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby.

The pilot, Gerald D'Arcy-Wright's headstone at Leeming Churchyard. His parents travelled the world, his father may well have been in the Canadian Army but research is ongoing. While working for Ceylonese Rubber in India, Gerald's brother George was born, Gerald was born two years later in 1914 in Montreal, Canada. The family came to England where Gerald's father died in 1916 and later his mother died in 1922 both from TB related illnesses. Gerald and his brother were put into a boarding school in England, thought to have been at Bishop Stotsford. After his schooling he was employed as a car mechanic at a garage in Sussex prior to joining up. The school has a plaque containing all the names of former pupils who were lost during the War, his name being one of them. His brother George would later marry Britiah Hilda and have a son, Warwick (who passed away in the UK in December 2002). George returned to New Zealand soon after marrying where he also died at a young age.

On an unknown date he was granted a commission into the RAF but was deducted rank briefly in July 1939. He was later made F/O on 3rd September 1940.

William Cannon was the organist at St.Andrews Church, Shoeburyness before the War and is buried in the local churchyard there.
My research in tracking down where this aircraft came down became difficult, all RAF sources quote the crash as the "Yorkshire Moors" and "near Leeming". Both of which are none too helpful. Following email contact with a former Rosedale resident, Mr Andrew Hunter; John Skinn and I were taken to the site in December 2004. The crash site, where wreckage is still in existance, is some way from the area which I had previously searched. Parts were identifed as being from a Hampden. Not much remains at the site today, as a result my online photographs of the site are to be limited to try and protect what does remain. I am told that following the crash locals made attempts to sifen off fuel from one of the aircrafts wings.

Most of the remaining wreckage at the site in December 2004 are shown in the photograph above.

I would like to thank Mr Karl D'arcy-Wright of New Zealand and Mrs Mikaela Goulden for contacting me, their great-uncle being the pilot of this aircraft. Although the information I have been able to give them has been only slight I would like to thank them everything they have been able to tell me regarding their uncle's life and his family. Thanks also to Ms. Mikaela Goulden for contacting me who also has a family connection to the pilot.

I would also like to express my thanks to Mr Hunter, without whom I doubt if I would ever have located this site.

For some reason Peter Clark, in his "An Unexpected Foe" book tries to dismiss the location as being at Hartoft and suggests the location to have been alot closer to Leeming. As with other incidents in this book his research appears very limited and is not practical-based. Information held in Police reports, death certificates, RAF records and perhaps the best of these sources; local memories all disagree. A site visit would have confirmed the remains to be from a Hampden and Hartoft was the only place Hampden X2920 could have crashed given these other sources. Why he tried to dismiss this location is not known.