On the 11th of September 1937 at 06.50hrs an Anson took off from Thornaby for a Home Fleet exercise somewhere in the
area of Scotland. The crew carried out their task and made their return south, passing Newcastle just before 10.00hrs and
making their way along the coastline towards the Middlesbrough area. The weather over the North-East at the time
was dreadful and it was thought that the navigator had missed the turn inland when over the Tees estuary because of the poor
visibility. Flying at a height of 750ft the aircraft passed over Guisborough, which those on the aircraft took to be
Greatham. The two towns looked similar from above and in the bad visibity the mistake could be made. The aircraft flew over
Guisborough and ploughed into the hillside near Belmont Mine at 10.45hrs killing all four on board instantly. locals had heard
the plane fly over them and the engines falling silent in the resulting crash, many of them made their way up onto the moor to
try and locate the site which they could not see because of the fog from the valley below.
Nothing could be done for the airmen, the locals helped to carry their bodies down off the moor, they were later taken to the
Admiral Chanoler Hospital where they lay until removal for burial. An inquest was later held and a verdict of
accidental death was returned on all four men. During this inquest it was stated that the captain and navigating
officer of the aircraft was P/O Lowden. Although the captain, it was thought that he had not been the actual pilot
at the time of the crash. It was also said that because of the weather and very poor visibilty the airmen would take turns
to be the pilot.
The aircraft was built to contract 497338/36 by A.V. Roe Ltd at Woodford and delivered directly to 233 Sqdn on 25th May 1937.
The aircraft sustained Cat W/FA damage in the incident detailed above and was struck off charge with total flying time of 93.40 hours
(Pilot) - P/O Leonard W Lowden RAF, aged 21, of Westfield, Newport, Fifeshire, buried ?
(?) - Acting P/O Hugh G McDonald RAF, aged 22, of Salisbury, Rhodesia and late of Duthie Terrace, Aberdeen, buried ?
(?) - Acting P/O David Sorley Munro RAF, aged 19, of South Street, St Andrews, buried Renfrew [ Arkleston ] Cemetery, Glasgow.
W Op - AC1 Thomas Douglas RAF, aged 18, of Duke Road, Millfield, Sunderland, buried ?
P/O Lowden was trained at RAF Cranwell and completed his course on 18th December 1936, after which he was posted to the
School of Air Navigation at Manston prior to being posted to Thornaby to join 233 Squadron. He was the Station Adjutant at Thornaby at
the time of his death and so an
article in Dec 2003 edition of Aeroplane magazine recounts, his kit was auctioned off to his fellow officers, this was common practice at the time.
F/O Munro's gravestone. (Thanks to C J Dickie of Perthshire for this photograph).
A number of photographs are known to exist of the crash, all taken soon after its crash.
Another view of the crashsite - photo by ?, via Dave Earl, via Graham Sharpe. If this needs a copyright adding please let me know.
I have yet to locate the crash site but am told vertually nothing remains today. The area is now heavily forested and the site
will take some tracking down.
This photograph shows one of what must be only afew remaining peices of the aircraft and was kindly provided by Mr Tony Johnson formerly of Guisborough, the peice remains in his collection. I thank him for contacting me and for sending me this photograph.
My account is the incident is drawn mainly from press reports from the time of the crash.
A Guisborough local sent me these other two photographs shown above. I do not know the actual owner them,
if they need to be credited please let me know.