During the afternoon of 16th October 1940 this brand new aircraft was being ferried from No.6 Maintenance Unit at Brize Norton to Yeadon airfield by a pilot of No.4 Ferry Pilot Pool in poor weather when it crashed into high ground on Ilkley Moor. The pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft, was killed. The end destination of where this aircraft was heading is not yet confirmed because some of the other T422.. batch of Whitleys were taken on charge by Bomber Command units in Yorkshire around this time, though others went to Coastal Command units. Prestwick has been suggested
Whitley T4225 was built to contract 38599/39 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd, at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 22nd September 1940. On 23rd September 1940 it was allotted to 6 MU and was taken on charge by them on 28th September 1940. On 16th October 1940 it crashed on Ilkley Moor while being ferried to an RAF unit. Cat.W/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge on 22nd October 1940.
Pilot - F/O Thomas Dowell Trouncer B.A. RAFVR (74264), aged 34. Buried Kensal Green R.C. Cemetery, London.
Thomas Trouncer was born on 16th August 1906 at Surbiton, Surrey and he was the eldest son of Harold Moltke Trouncer and Alice Beatrice Cornes. He attended Winchester College and later University College, Oxford gaining an B.A. and while at university he was a member of the Oxford University Air Squadron. After graduating from Oxford he begun a career as a solicitor and was made a partner in Markby, Stewart & Wadesons, of Bishopsgate, London but continued his flying in the RAF Special Reserve for several years. While at Oxford he met and later married Margaret Lahay in 1931 (who was became a famous novelist) and they had a baby daughter together. His wife was living at Cirencester in 1940 and then in South Kensington, London when the CWGC compiled their records. He was granted a commission in the RAFO as P/O on probation on 23rd July 1928 and was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 23rd July 1929. He rose to F/O on 23rd January 1930 but relinquished his commission of F/O on completion of service on 23rd July 1933 (under the terms of his commission). His obituary stated that family life and his profession resulted in him giving up his commission in the RAF in the 1930s. On the outbreak of WW2 he rejoined the RAF and was granted a commission as F/O on 22nd August 1939 (with seniority of 22nd February 1936). By May 1940 he appears to have selected to ferry aircraft. On 28th May 1940 he was flying with No.4 Ferry Pilots Pool and flying Hurricane P2672 when the aircraft crashed near Boseley, near Westbury-upon-Severn. He sustained injuries but recovered. There is no evidence that Thomas Trouncer ever served in the ATA or was even seconded to the ATA as is suggested elsewhere on other modern accounts of the fatal crash on Ilkley Moor.
The aircraft crashed into the area shown on this photograph with my wife for scale.
Mr Graham Sharpe located this crash site back in 1979 and this photograph shows the fragments he found which probably shows just how little of the aircraft was left back then.
Similiar tiny fragments of the aircraft remained at the crash site when I visited in May 2014. Many of my finds were located on top of mole hills.
