On the night of 23rd October 1944 the crew of this Wellington were undertaking a night navigation training exercise with a number of pilots on board. The aircraft was part of the Central Navigation School (C.N.S.) and was based at Shawbury, Staffordshire. It was being flown in cloud when control was lost and the aircraft crashed at high speed and blew up on impact in the region of Elleron Lodge and Keldy, to the north of Pickering. The flight had lasted almost two and a half hours when the crash occurred at 23.50hrs. The aircraft was totally destroyed with the crew of five on board being killed. Icing conditions on the airframe were believed to have been the factor which resulted in control being lost.
The unit the aircraft and crew belonged to was the Central Navigation School (C.N.S.), though this appears mis-quoted in many modern records of this incident; the Form AM1180 states they belonged to the Empire Central Navigation School (ECNS) which also must be incorrect because the C.N.S. was renamed E.C.N.S. at Shawbury on 28th October 1944; but this was five days after JA305 had crashed. The Empire Air Navigation School (E.A.N.S.) is also quoted but again is believed to be incorrect. The location of the crash is given as on "Mitchelson's Moor, Keldy" on a sourced police record, this location is not recorded on any map from the wartime period up until the modern series. I think Mitchelson's Moor refers to Lord Middleton; J M Mitchelson Esq. who owned the land at the time.
Wellington JA305 was built to contract 92439/40 by Vickers Armstrongs Ltd at Squires Gate, Blackpool. It was received by 48 M.U. on 3rd September 1943. On 12th January 1944 it was taken on charge by the Central Navigation School at Cranage. The aircraft moved with the unit to Shawbury on 11th February 1944 and was slightly damaged in a flying accident on 28th March 1944 which saw Cat.Ac/FA damage being the damage assessment. It was repaired on site and returned to the until on an unknown date. Following the crash on 23rd October 1944 it was destroyed with Cat.E2/FA damage being the damage assessment. It was struck off charge on 27th October 1944 once the paperwork caught up.
Pilot - W/O Arthur John Novis RAFVR (1314740), aged 22. Buried Oystermouth Cemetery, Swansea, Wales.
(Second) Pilot - F/O Peter McPhillips RAFVR (139834), aged 29. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Pilot - Sgt Philip Ronald Scott RAFVR (1673505), aged 32. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Pilot - F/Sgt David Bruce James Pryde Watson RAFVR (1345463), aged 20. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - F/Sgt Mervyn Henry George Lane RAFVR (1587028), aged 21. Buried Wellington Cemetery, Somerset.
Arthur Novis was known by his middle name John. He was the son of Mrs and Mrs A L Novis, of Uplands, Swansea. As a boy he attended the Brynmill School and as a young man he worked for the Swansea based Western Mail and Echo newspaper. His brother served in the Merchant Navy. John was engaged to be married at the time of his death, to a Liverpool girl Miss Rose Martin.
David Pryde Watson was the son of William Pryde Watson and Harriet "Hetty" Alice Pryde Watson. His parents had married in Jabalpur, India in December 1910. His mother was the daughter of Robert Melville-Smith who was born on 15th July 1885 at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, India and died on 14th November 1926 at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India. David Pryde Watson was almost certainly born in India. He and his father later moved to Edinburgh, Scotland. His father then died on 14th June 1943 and was buried at Morningside Cemetery, Edinburgh. I find it highly likely that David had a brother in the RAF, Sgt Robin Douglas Pryde-Watson, who was killed on 23rd June 1943 flying with 161 Squadron, Special Duties, over Holland. Both David and Robin are commemorated on the same Colinton War Memorial, Edinburgh. The CWGC database makes no link to them being brothers and lists no family information for Robin.
Peter McPhillips was born on 23rd January 1916 at Bellshill, south-east of Glasgow, Scotland to Peter and Janet McPhillips. He and his family emigrated from Scotland to the USA when he was a child. They later moved to Honolulu, Hawaii in 1934. His father was probably born on 28th April 1891 and died in 1973 while his mother was almost certainly Janet Russell McPhillips who later applied for US citizenship in 1941. As a young man Peter (Jnr) worked at the Naalehu and Big Island sugar plantations, then later for the Hawaiian Electric Company. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor took place on 7th December 1941 and may have had some influence on him then enlisting for military service. A newspaper report located states that he left Honolulu in May (probably May 1942) and travelled to England to enlist into the RAF but that the ship on which he was travelling was torpedoed. He enlisted for RAF service and after basic training was posted to Rhodesia where he then spent around year. He was granted a commission in the RAF as P/O on probation (emergency) on 20th February 1943 and rose to F/O on probation on 20th August 1943. He was later posted back the UK. Another newspaper report located stated that he had flown P.51 Mustangs but whether this was true or not is unclear. He married Helene Sciver (later of Kensington, London) in the Whitchurch district of Shropshire in Spring 1944, this district includes Shawbury and she may well have been a WAAF at the same airfield as he was. I thank his niece Ms.Jane Murray for contacting me in October 2010.
Philip Scott was born on 22nd March 1912 and was a son of Charles Edward Scott and Margaret Elizabeth (nee Ackroyd) Scott. Philip's grandfather; Charles' father was a wealthy cloth merchant though Charles becoming a solicitor as a young man with the family living at Heaton, Bradford. Additional information surrounding the family is displayed on the "www.bradfordgrammar.com" website. Lieut-Col Charles Edward Scott, 6th Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment was wounded on 24th July 1916 in France and then died on 9th August 1916. He is buried at Etaples Military Cemetery, France. Charles is commemorated on a family memorial in Underclliffe Cemetery and also on a window within St.Chad's Church, Manningham. As a boy Philip attended Sedbergh School between 1925 and 1928, he then initially worked in the wool industry but later became a solictor in the Wade Tetley Wade family business. During the first part of the Second World War he worked in a government office before enlisting for RAF service. He married Marjorie Shackleton in Harrogate, Yorkshire on 4th October 1943 which was where he was based prior to enlisting for RAF service. I thank his nephew Charles Scott for kindly supplying additional information and the photograph shown above.
Mervyn Lane was the son of Arthur and Annie (nee Webber) Lane, of Wellington, Somerset. As a boy he was educated at Wellington School then worked in the Health Department at County Hall, Taunton. He served in the local ATC and then the Home Guard prior to enlisted for RAF service in May 1942. I have not located a photograph of him but would love to be able to include one should anyone be in a position to forward one.
Brothers were s l j, gerald ernest arthur, ronald c
The Wellington is believed to have come down within this area shown on this photograph which was taken in the 1970's by my grandfather, Mr George William Allenby. The aircraft crashed onto what was once moorland but the area was deep ploughed in the years after the war and it is now farmland. Keldy Castle was occupied by army units prior to D-Day with the area used for training exercises. I have attempted to research the later history of the occupation and it appears that the army left prior to D-Day. After D-Day nothing really happened military-wise and it appears to have been left abandoned for some time. As the Wellington crashed after D-Day I expect that the site was cleared as best it could and left. Since creating an earlier version of this webpage I have received emails from two people to state that parts of the aircraft were discovered in a pond near Keldy Castle until the area was redeveloped in the 1950s into what is now the Keldy Forest Lodges, operated by Forest Holidays. The pond is not exactly close to the crash site but I suspect that as the castle site was abandoned the RAF used the disused pond to attempt to bury some of the larger items.
In 2020 Elleron Lodge (the white building), as it existed in this photograph, was partly demolished and is part way through being redeveloped into a much larger country house.
The aircraft is believed to have crashed onto the cultivated farmland towards the centre of the photograph taken in March 2013. Photograph credit to myself, Rich Allenby.
