On the morning of 30th November 1943 the crew of this aircraft took off from Riccall airfield for a dual conversion training flight with 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit. At 11.15hrs the aircraft was badly damaged after landing when the undercarriage unexpectedly collapsed. After inspection the damage was deemed to severe and it was written off.
Instructor Pilot - Acting S/Ldr Sidney James Brownlee Hamilton DFC RAFVR (62703).
Trainee Pilot - Sgt Lawrence Joseph Melling RAFVR (1459687).
Sidney Hamilton was granted a commission in the RAFVR on 27th March 1941 to the rank of P/O on probation and received a promotion to F/O (war subs) exactly a year later. On the night of 12th / 13th September 1941 he was flying as a second pilot in 102 Squadron Whitley Z6800 which was damaged by flak and returned to Topcliffe. Much later while in the rank of Acting F/Lt he was awarded the DFC for service with 102 Squadron, Gazetted on 9th February 1943. The citation for his DFC reads.."F/Lt Hamilton has at all times displayed exceptional qualities of leadership. During attacks on many very heavily defended targets such as Bremen, Frankfurt and Karlsruhe, he has shown care and precision in performing his alloted tasks. On several occasions he has secured excellent photographs from a low level." On 4th January 1943 he was probably instructing at 1658 HCU and was flying Halifax L9569 when the aircraft suffered an engine fire while in the air, he managed to land the aircraft in a hurry at Melbourne but the fire then spread and it was badly damaged. He was promoted to F/Lt (war subs) on 27th March 1943 and to S/Ldr (war subs) on 21st September 1944. On 1st November 1947 he was granted a Substantive rank in the RAFVR of F/Lt (with seniority of 1st January 1943) but he relinquished his War Substantive rank in the RAFVR in February 1948 upon his transfer to the Secretarial Branch and was appointed to a commission as F/Lt. He transferred to the Reserve on 14th December 1958 and finally relinquished his commission on 14th December 1962. He probably died in the Sedgemoor area of Somerset in 1988.
Lawrence Melling completed his training at 1658 HCU and was posted to 51 Squadron. In May 1944 he was posted to 635 Squadron and received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 1st November 1944. For service with 635 Squadron he was awarded the DFC, Gazetted on 27th March 1945. Post-ww2 he worked for KLM airlines and would emigrate to Canada working for the company at Montreal. In retirement he worked on the "Mynarski Lancaster". He died in Ottawa in December 2008.
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