A 61 Squadron Hampden at Hemswell being bombed up prior to an operational flight.
Five Hampdens from 61 Squadron took off from their base at Hemswell in Lincolnshire around 19.00hrs on 5th October 1940 with this specific aircraft taking 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 Operation Record Book and the crew were tasked with dropping mines in the "Eglantine" area at the Elbe Estuary. Because of the poor weather only three of the aircraft were sucessful in dropping their mines and the others had to jettison them 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 York 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 it's 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 it's first impact. Due to the location of where the crash occurred, which was very close to a road, it is thought that almost all of the aircraft was removed in the days after the crash. I am told that following the crash locals made attempts to sifen off fuel from one of the aircraft's wings tanks.
Hampden X2920 was built to contract B994449/39 by English Electric Co.Ltd. at Samlesbury and was allotted to 37 M.U. on 15th August 1940. It was delivered to 37 M.U. on 2nd September 1940 and after acceptance it was issued to 61 Squadron at Hemswell on 15th September 1940. The aircraft was written off with Cat.W/FB damage being the damage assessment following the accident at Hartoft on 6th October 1940.
Pilot - P/O Gerald D'arcy-Wright RAF (40162), aged 25. Buried Leeming Churchyard, Yorkshire. Served as "Wright".
Observer - Sgt William Arthur Cannon RAFVR (746801), aged 28. Buried South Shoebury Churchyard, Shoeburyness, Essex (grave 595).
Air Gunner - Sgt Walter Benedict Rayment RAFVR (751840), aged 26. Buried Henfield Cemetery, Sussex.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Alan Algar RAFVR (970031), aged 19. Buried Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby.
Gerald's parents were George and Maud (nee Dickens) D'Arcy-Wright. While working for in India, Gerald's brother George Albert was born around 1913. His father
worked as an agent for the British Celanese Textile company which appears to have seen the family move around the world. Gerald was born at Montreal, Quebec, Canada on 24th
June 1915. The family may have also lived in New Zealand for a period. The family came to England where Gerald's father died in 1916. In the 1921 Census Maud and
the two boys were living at Rochford, Essex. They dropped the "D'Arcy" part of their surname by this date. They mother Maud died in 1922, both parents from TB related illnesses. Gerald and his brother were
put into a boarding school in England, thought to have been at Bishop Stortford. After leaving school he was employed as a car mechanic at a garage in Sussex prior to
enlisted into the RAF. The school has a plaque containing all the names of former pupils who were lost during the War, his name being one of them. The date gerald
received a commission in the RAF is not known was he deducted in rank briefly in July 1939. He was later made F/O on 3rd September 1940.
I thank both Mr Karl D'arcy-Wright and Mrs Mikaela Goulden for contacting me in respect of their great-uncle Gerald D'Arcy-Wright.
Walter Rayment's grave in Henfield Cemetery. I credit "Julia&Keld" again with this gravestone photograph. He was born on 3rd October 1914 at Ballimaster, Ireland and
was the son of Albert George and Ellin Mary (nee ) Rayment. His father was born in Middlesex while his mother was born in Galway, Ireland. The family moved to Henfield, Sussex in 1916.
Alan Algar was the son of George and Violet Annie (nee D'Altroy) Algar and was born on 18th August 1921. His father died when he was a boy and his mother later remarried.
I credit the websiteforum on "warmemorials.myfastforum.org" and this photograph must have been taken well before 2016 when I visited his grave in Derby Cemetery because
a huge rose bush totally covered his gravestone.
I was rather late in history to visit this crash site, only first visiting in December 2004. Access is very easy so I visited a few times between 2004 and 2011 to photograph everything.
Between my visit in 2011 and a return visit in May 2015 all the remaining surface wreckage had been removed from the site.
The photograph above shows most of the remaining wreckage at the site as seen in December 2004. I re-visited the area a number of times with the second to last occasion being
in October 2011 when I found some pieces of perspex some distance from the main collection shown above.
The only part left at the crash site in 2011 with a part number, the "52" prefix confirms this aircraft wreckage as coming from a Hampden, "52" refers to the Hamdley Page 52,
which was the design number for the Hampden type.
An "E.E.P." English Electric inspection stamp confirming the Hampden piece was manufactured in their factory.
The largest section of the aircraft still at the site 71 years to the day after the accident.
William Cannon was born at Ilford, Essex on 30th May 1912 and was the son of Arthur James and Florence Martha (nee Fuller) Cannon. In the 1939 Register he was living with
his mother at Southend on Sea and was a member of the RAFVR. He was the organist at St.Andrews Church, Shoeburyness before the War and is buried in the local churchyard there.
His mother was living at Westcliffe on Sea in 1940.
