Mosquito DZ698 at Fartown, Huddersfield.

On 6th July 1944 this No.13 Operational Training Unit aircraft took off from Finmere airfield, in Oxfordshire, to undertake a training flight involving single engine flying and landing on one engine. For whatever reason the pilot, who was the sole occupant of the aircraft and also possibly an instructor at 13 O.T.U., opted not to carry out this exercise but to fly from Finmere to Huddersfield. His parents and newly married wife lived in Fartown. Once over the Huddersfield area he became a series of passes at low level over the Fartown area. While making an aerobatic manoeuvre he lost control and the Mosquito crashed into housing on the corner of West Close and Central Avenue, Fartown. Unfortunately people were in the houses at the time and as well as the pilot being killed three civilians died. A further lady seated in her garden suffered minor burns.

Pilot - F/Lt Ernest Robert James Blezard RAFVR (89841), aged 24. Of Hudderfield. Buried Egerton Cemetery, Huddersfield, Yorkshire (R.C.Gen.Sec 62/29).

Civilian - Mrs Flora May Dorothy Leighton, aged 40, of 51 Central Avenue, Fartown, Huddersfield. Buried Christchurch Churchyard, Woodhouse, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Civilian - Master Rodney Bracken Leighton, aged 2, of 51 Central Avenue, Fartown, Huddersfield. Buried Christchurch Churchyard, Woodhouse, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Civilian - Mrs Henrietta Victoria Udell, aged 62, of 61 West Close, Fartown, Huddersfield. Buried Edgerton Cemetery, Huddersfield, Yorkshire.

Civilian - Mrs Kathleen Vickerman. Minor injuries.

Other modern accounts of this incident list Private Leslie Roy Littlewood, of the Royal Army Service Corps, as being killed in this incident. This is 100% not correct, his death was registered in Southampton.
Ernest Blezard was the son of postman Ernest Robert and Christine Mary Blezard. They lived at 110 Blackhouse Road, Fartown. He had trained to be a pilot in the UK and while training at the R.A.F.C. at Cranwell he crash landed Oxford R5949 at Barkston Heath on 8th December 1940. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 29th December 1940 (with seniority of 22nd December 1940) rising to F/O after a year and to F/Lt after two years. He had been serving in Canada as an instructor up until a few weeks before his death. He had recently married Kathleen Mary Grogan in Huddersfield.

Flora May Leighton (nee Wood) had married John Frederick Bracken Leighton in 1926 in Huddersfield, they appear to have had two children. Her widower John Leighton later re-married in 1945 but then died in 1951 in the Huddersfield area.

Mosquito DZ698 was built by De Havilland at Hatfield and was received by 27 MU on 1st February 1943. The aircraft was taken on charge by 151 Squadron on 2nd April 1943 but was immediately transferred to 418 Squadron the following day. On 16th June 1943 it passed to 157 Squadron, then to 307 Squadron on 23rd August 1943. It returned to 157 Squadron on 9th November 1943 but appears to have sustained some form damage on 11th November 1943, initially assessed as Cat.Ac/FB but upgraded to Re.Cat.B days later for a repair in works factory to be carried out. On 4th April 1944 it was servicable again and was flown to 27 MU. On 9th May 1944 it was taken on charge by 13 OTU and was written off with Cat.E/FA damage following the crash at Huddersfield on 6th July 1944.

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