On 1st March 1942 the pilot of this 122 Squadron aircraft took off at 15.40hrs from Scorton airfield with one other aircraft to undertake a formation flying exercise. The weather over Scorton was cloudy but not enough to prevent flying. After take off both aircraft formated up in the area of Scotch Corner and then proceeded to head west using the A66 road towards Barnard Castle as a marker on the ground. By the time they arrived in the Barnard Castle area the cloud was much lower so the section leader instructed this other pilot that because of the weather they should turn back. The section leader successfully turned around but this other aircraft was lost in the cloud. At 16.00hrs it was heard by people on the ground to have crashed near Dent House, Brignall and the pilot was sadly killed. It was thought that the pilot had lost control while flying in cloud and being reasonably low had had no height in which to recover control of the aircraft before it hit the ground. At the time of this incident the pilot was in a relationship with a local ATS girl, Jean Norton, and that he had promised her that he would overfly her home at Startforth when the opportunity arose. There is no reference to deliberate low flying in the accident reports for this incident which state the weather was purely to blame. Following his death permission was granted for him to be buried at Startforth and his grave was tended by this young lady for many years until her death in 2006.
Spitfire BL500 was built to contract B.981687/39 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Castle Bromwich and was delivered to 8 MU at Little Rissington on 9th December 1941. Two days later it was taken on charge by 122 Squadron at Scorton. As a result of the crash on 1st March 1942 the aircraft was destroyed and Cat.E2/FA damage was recorded following assessment. It was struck off charge on 5th March 1942 when the paperwork caught up.
Pilot - P/O Albert Lawrence Logan RCAF (J/15102), aged 22, of Beamsville, Ontario, Canada. Buried Startforth Churchyard, Barnard Castle.
Albert Logan was born on 21st October 1919 in Georgetown, Ontario, Canada and was the son of Arthur and Elizabeth (nee Sawtell) Logan. He worked for Beamsville branch of the Canadian Bank of Commerce prior to enlisting, he enlisted in Hamilton on 16th October 1940 and gained his Wings in Canada on 22nd April 1941 before going overseas the following month. On arrival in the UK he trained at 57 O.T.U. before posting to 122 Squadron in July 1941. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on 11th December 1941. The photograph of him shown above is borrowed from the superb Aircrew Remembranced website.