Lincoln EF500 near Leconfield.

On the 26th November 1951 this aircraft was being flown back to Leconfield with the Station Rugby team on board having played a match again the team at RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man. The aircraft was coming into land at Leconfield when it stalled and sideslipped into the ground close to Molescroft Grange. It came to rest alongside the Hull to Scarborough railway line at 08.15hrs and partly blocked the line. A number of people had witnessed it coming down and two made their way up the line to stop any trains. Peggy Farmer, Una Stork, Abram Stork and Laurence Bedford were all thanked for their help assisance in helping the injured men in the aircraft. Another aircraft was flying a similar course with part of the rugby team, this landed safely. There was a total of fifteen people on the aircraft at the time and while two were killed everyone else was injured to some degree. Those who were sadly killed were:

Passenger/"Player" - J/Tech Robert Taylor RAF (584922), aged 20, of Carlisle. Buried Carlisle General Cemetery.

Passenger/"Player" - LAC Roy E Skeldon RAF (2500676), aged 21, of Leeds, Yorkshire. Buried Woodhouse Cemetery, Leeds, Yorkshire. He had played rugby for Hunslet, Leeds.

The names of those injured are as follows:

Pilot - Master Pilot Charles D Lee RAF, aged 33. Very seriously injured and later transferred by air to a hospital near Oxford.

Aircrew - F/Sgt Donald Munrow, seriously injured.

Navigator - F/O Keith F Hopkins, injured.

Aircrew - F/Sgt John L S Robinson, injured.

Passenger/"Player" - S/Ldr Leslie G W Lilly RAF (36175), seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - LAC E R Hayes, seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - LAC R C Marshall, seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - AC1 E A Watkins, seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - AC1 R W Reaney, seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - AC J Sowden, seriously injured.

Passenger/"Player" - LAC R Smith, injured.

Passenger/"Player" - LAC E Rawson, injured.

Passenger/"Player" - AC B Mortimer, injured.

Leslie Lilly was granted a short service commission in the RAF on 15th March 1939 as P/O (with seniority back dated to 4th January 1939). He rose to F/O on 3rd September 1940 (with seniority back dated to 4th August 1940) and to F/Lt exactly a year later. He then rose to S/Ldr (war subs) on 1st September 1942 and was still this rank when, on 15th March 1944, he transferred to the RAF Reserve and was called up for service immediately almost certainly so he could transferred to the RNZAF as a day later he was granted a commission in the RNZAF. Postwar he transferred back to the RAF and remained in the service for many years. On 16th May 1949 he was appointed to a permanent commission to the rank of F/Lt (with seniority backdated to 4th April 1948) and was transferred to the Equipment Branch on this appointment. He was in the Equipment Branch when he rose to S/Ldr on 1st July 1953. He commanded 62 Squadron in Malaya in 1942 and later commanded 353 Squadron in 1944. As S/Ldr he retired from the RAF on 2nd September 1961, retaining the rank of W/Co.
In 1991 Keith Hopkins arranged a dinner for the people who had assisted in the rescue of those involved.

I thank and credit Mr Harvey Stork with much of the background information supplied to create this account and also thank him for his time is contacting family members for this. His family lived at Molescroft Grange at the time of the accident and a number of his family were commended for their actions in saving the lives of a number of airmen involved.