460421 - Unaccounted Airmen - 21-04-1946

[Alex Smart]

Hello,

460421 - Unaccounted Airmen - 21-04-1946

From Henk's List -

IRAQ
ASHWORTH, Frederick - LAC - 1775206 - RAFVR - Basra War Cemetery, Iraq.

ITALY
ROBERTS, Frank - W/O - 1622784 - RAFVR - 84 Sqdn - Naples War Cemetery, Italy.

UK
EDSBERG, Morgen - F/Lt(Pilot) - 135758 - RAFVR The Maidenhead Register, Berkshire. Repatriated to Denmark.
SHELDRAKE, Francis James - F/O - 122848 - RAFVR - Farnworth ( St. Luke ) Churchyard, Lancashire.

From CWGC & Geoff's Sites -

AUSTRALIA
BARTLETT, Howard James - AC1c - 154134 - RAAF - Adelaide River War Cemetery, Northern Territory, Australia.
TERRY, William John Charles - Cpl - 85941 - RAAF - Adelaide River War Cemetery, Northern Territory, Australia.

INDIA
KARAK, Singh - Cpl - RIAF - Delhi/Karachi 1939-1945 War Memorials, India.

UK
BROOKS, Eric - Air Mechanic A2c - L/FX.781527 - HMS Gosling - Royal Navy - Manchester Crematorium, Lancashire.

One other loss this day was that of Kirby Cadet - RA889 - 45 GS - killing a Mr. D. E. DAROUX.

Alex

[COL BRUGGY]

Hello,

AUSTRALIA.

154134 AC1 Howard James BARTLETT RAAF
85941 Cpl William John Charles TERRY RAAF.

85941 Cpl (General Hand) William John Charles TERRY RAAF, and 154134 AC1 Howard James BARTLETT RAAF (both of No.112 Air-Sea Rescue Flight), were killed in a service vehicle (No.212455) accident at Fanny Bay Road, Darwin, on 21 April, 1946. 153925 LAC Clifford Arnold RUSSELL RAAF (also of No.112 Air-Sea Rescue Flight), was slightly injured. The vehicle was being driven by Bartlett. Burial, at Adelaide River Cemetery, took place on 23 April, 1946.

Col.

[Martyn A Critchlow]

Edsberg, Jørgen
(n.a - 1946)
Jørgen Edsberg is part of the Danish team of broadcasters in BBC at the beginning of the war. He wishes to take a more active part in the war and volunteers for the Royal Air Force. He survives the war, but is killed in a tragic accident in April 1946.
Jørgen Edsberg is educated as journalist and works as news reporter for the Danish Broadcasting Company and the Danish newspaper Berlingske Tidende before the war. He is the presenter of the first B.B.C. broadcast to the newly occupied Denmark from London on 9 April 1940 (FLYV, 9.1945).
Volunteers for the Royal Air Force
At some point he volunteers for Royal Air Force and is trained as pilot (RAFVR, 135758). He is attached to the Royal Air Force Transport Command as ferry pilot delivering aircraft across the Atlantic. Later in the war he is flying instructor. He ends the war as Flight Lieutenant.
Following the liberation, Jørgen Edsberg is liaison officer for Royal Air Force in B.160 Copenhagen/Kastrup for some time. He is then employed by the company Scan-Aviation as flying instructor.
A Fatal Accident
On 22 April 1946 Jørgen Edsberg is participating in a film recording. He is performing aerobatics in a Miles Magister while filmed from an Auster J/I Autocrat piloted by former Royal Norwegian Air Force pilot Erik Gregers-Olsen (aka Erik Infeldt). The two aircraft collide, the Magister crashes to the ground and Jørgen Edsberg is killed instantly. Erik Gregers-Olsen manages to make a emergency landing rescuing himself and the photographer.
According to CWGC he is then attached to Royal Air Force’s unit 100 P.D.G. T.C.C.

From http://www.danishww2pilots.dk/profil...?alpha=e&id=22

Martyn

[COL BRUGGY]

Hello,

Re: Edsberg:

Miles M.14A Hawk Trainer Mk.3 - G-AGVW (c/n.1748), (ex-P6380) Registered 19.11.45. Destroyed in (mid-) air collision with Auster J/1 Autocrat OY-DGA, Copenhagen 21.4.1946.

See:
British Civil Aircraft 1919-1972: Volume III
Jackson,A J.
London:Putnam,1988(2nd ed. with corrections)
p.489

Col.

[malcolm_raf]

Hi

IRAQ
ASHWORTH, Frederick - LAC - RAF Masirah.

UK
SHELDRAKE, Francis James - F/O - registered in Runcorn.

Malcolm

[wwrsimon]

Alex

UK

SHELDRAKE, Francis James - F/O - 122848 - the National Probate Calendar records that he died at Royal Naval Sick Quarters, Grappenhall, Cheshire.

BROOKS, Eric - Air Mechanic A2c - L/FX.781527 - ADM 104 Service Registers and Registers of Deaths and Injuries records that he died at Monsall Hospital, Manchester due to Diptheria.

Kirby Cadet - RA889 - 45 GS - the newspapers at the time reported this accident. This is from the Staffordhsire Advertiser, April 27th 1946:

FATALITY AT MEIR AERODORME
Glider Pilot's Death
The first fatality to occur during glider flights, which have been taking place at Meir Aerodrome, Stoke-on-Trent, for a long time, happened durimg the Easter holiday.
The victoim was Mr. Desmond Edward Daroux, 13, Bramfield Drive, Newcastle [under Lyme], a 31 year old electrical engineer in the employ of thre English Electric Co., Ltd., Stafford, who received his "A" certificate only a fortnight previously, and had been appointed a civilian instructor at the M45 Gliding School, Meir.
Mr. Daroux, who had a wife and two young children, died in Longton Cottage Hopsital on Monday morning, after he had crashed at the aerodrome the previous afternoon.

Regards

Simon

[Richard Cawsey]

SHELDRAKE, Francis James - F/O - 122848 - RAFVR - Farnworth ( St. Luke ) Churchyard, Lancashire.
Manchester Evening News - Wednesday 24 April 1946:
Francis James Sheldrake, aged 40, single, insurance accountant, of Birchfield Road, Widnes, chief flying instructor of the 187th Gliding School, North Western Command Air Training Corps, who crashed during a glider operation at the Royal Naval Air Station, Stretton, near Warrington, on Sunday and died the same day. At the Stockton Heath inquest, to-day, it was stated that Sheldrake, an experienced pilot, who had already done six previous flights that day, was launched from about 900 feet. He did two left hand circuits and was attempting a third when he crashed from a height of 80 feet.