On 28th November 1941 this No.10 Air Observer School aircraft was being flown on a training flight which took the aircraft over the northern Lake District. At 11.40hrs the aircraft was being exceptionally low over Derwent Water when a wing tip of wheel clipped the water causing the aircraft to cartwheel. Sadly six crew members were killed in the crash that occurred around 600 yards from the east shore in Calfclose Bay. It took some time to recover the bodies of those killed. Morris, Tabor and Hards were recovered on 4th December 1941, Ward was recovered on 10th December 1941 and Laidman was recovered on 6th January 1942.
Pilot - Sgt Cedric Gordon Allen Tabor RAFVR (1051995), aged 22, of Bare, Morecambe, Lancashire. Buried Troqueer Cemetery, Dumfries, Scotland.
Observer (U/T) - LAC James Edward Barry Hards RAF (657558), aged 23, of Manchester. Buried Dumfries RC Cemetery, Scotland.
Observer (U/T) - LAC James Ward RAF (657968), aged 29. Of Middleton, Leeds. Buried Leeds Roman Catholic Cemetery, Yorkshire (Scn Wall BT/14).
Observer (U/T) - LAC Dennis James Laidman RAFVR (1318658), aged 21, of North Finchley, London. Buried St.Pancras Cemetery, London (6D/61).
Observer (U/T) - LAC Ronald Frederick George Griffin RAFVR (1338278), aged 19, of Swindon. Buried Swindon Burial Ground, Wiltshire.
Observer (U/T) - LAC Leonard Morris RAFVR (1501436), aged 19, of Leeds, Yorkshire. Buried Leeds (Hill Top) Jewish Cemetery, commemorated Leeds Gelderd Road English Hebrew Cemetery.
Cedric Tabor was the son of Alfred Arthur and Miriam Grace (nee Allen) Tabor and was born on 30th December 1918 at Long Eaton, Derbyshire but he was baptised at Farndon, Nottinghamshire on 9th April 1922. His father served in the Army, then the RFC and then the RAF when it formed in 1918. After the First World War he served in the Salvation Army. His father died in 1935 but his obituary doesn't mention Cedric attending. His mother with Cedric and a much younger brother had moved to Morecambe, Lancashire by the time the 1939 Census was made. In 1941 his mother was living at Bale, Morecambe and she later remarried.
James Hards was born on 2nd January 1918 at Manchester and was the son of (Someone) and Patricia (nee McCarthy) Hards. They lived at Chorlton-cum-Hardy and James appears to have had a young brother, John born in 1923, but I have struggled to locate the family on any census's.
Dennis Laidman was born on 6th August 1920 and was the son of James Herbert Millais and Marion (nee Stamp) Laidman, of North Finchley, London.
Ronald Griffin was born on 8th September 1922 at Swindon and was the son of Reginald Henry John and Lily Ada (nee Sadler) Griffin. His father worked as a guard for the Great Western Railway.
Leonard Morris was born on 21st December 1921 at Leeds and was the son of Israel and Gertrude Morris, of Leeds.
James Ward was born on 21st June 1912 at Kilkenny, Ireland and was the son of ? He moved to Leeds, West Yorkshire where he married Maizie Lilian Jessop in the South Leeds area in 1938. In the 1939 Register he was living at Middleton, Leeds and was working as an optician. He had initially served in the Army but transferred to the RAF around four months before he was killed, by which time his wife and two young children lived at Osmondthorpe, Leeds.
Leonard Morris' grave is technically "lost" according to the CWGC database. The photograph of his gravestone shown above was found on "www.jewishgen.org" which is a fantastic archive of Jewish graves in Leeds. It is not a lost burial location but do to mining subsidence the cemetery has been closed so the CWGC are unable to care for his grave and a special memorial is being created for those buried in the Hill Top Jewish cemeteries. Similarily James Ward's grave location appears to be unmarked as he is commemorated on a memorial wall in Leeds RC Cemetery.
The location of where this incident occurred has not yet been found. If you can assist please contact me HERE. Thank you.