On 5th May 1944 the pilot of this 53 Operational Training Unit aircraft took off from Kirton in Lindsey airfield to undertake a training flight. During the course of the flight the aircraft was flying very low when it flew into trees around two miles west of Skirlaugh at 11.40hrs. As a result of the crash near Arnold Carr Farm the pilot was killed.
Pilot - F/Sgt Robert Bruce Morrison RAAF (421366), aged 22, of Bowral, New South Wales, Australia. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (B/B/20).
Robert Morrison was born on 7th November 1921 at Manly, New South Wales, Australia and was the son of Robert Leslie and Henriette Snowden Morrison. He enlisted for RAAF service on 1st February 1942 in Sydney and after basic training in Australia was posted to Canada to undertake pilot training. He was awarded his pilot's wings on 16th April 1943. On arrival in the UK he trained at 17 (P)AFU and 7 (O)AFU before posting to 53 Operational Training Unit on 14th March 1944.
Historians Albert Pritchard, Ken Reast and Eric Barton attended a search for the crash location with East Yorkshire aviation expert Rodney Robinson around the year 2000 with permission from the landowner and small fragments were found to confirm the location. The items shown in this photograph were retained by Eric and have since passed to me to rehome.