420212 - Unaccounted airmen - 12-2-1942

[Martyn A Critchlow]

AC1 Gerald H. WESTON - 1444436 - shown as RAF Hornchurch, was engaged in a storeroom when there was an explosion and he received multiple injuries which proved fatal.
(Nottingham Evening Post, 14 February 1942)

Martyn

[wwrsimon]

Hello

AC1 Frederick G. KNIGHT - 1184262 - the Bath Chronicle & Weekly Gazette of February 21st 1942 reported the following:

YOUNG BATH WIFE BEREAVED
Husband Killed on Return From Leave
A few hours after her husband had left to return to his R.A.F. station after leave, a young Bath wife received a telegram to say that he was lying seriously injured in a Doncaster hospital.
Shortly afterwards there came another message, to announce that the accident had terminated fatally. Subsequent information showed that he had been knocked down by a motor bus while on his way to an aerdrome in the vicinity.
The bereaved wife is Mrs. Nina Knight, who resides with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. P. H. Swain, at 69 The Oval, Englishcombe Park, Bath. She was married on September 20 last, at St. Luke's Church, Bath, to Aircraftman Frederick Gordon Knight, whose home was at Leicester, but who had been working at the Pitman Press, Bath, for several years before joining the R.A.F.

LAC (Pilot u/t) Leigh B.S. FALKINER - 1384158 - a newspaper clipping on a family tree on ancestry.co.uk reports that he died in a air accident. The Grave Registration Report Form lists his unit as 15 F.T.S.

AC2 Denis W. OTTER - 1577520 - the Graves Registration Report Form lists his unit as 5 I.T.W.

LAC (Pilot u/t) John P. SINGLETON - 1030980 - the Graves Registration Report Form lists his unit as 6 F.T.S.

Regards

Simon

[AL90]

LAC (Pilot u/t) Leigh B.S. FALKINER - 1384158- Strangely for an RAF Casualty, a casualty file in National Archives Australia has been digitalised this week, Full name is given as Leigh Brereton Sadleir Falkiner 1384158 and only other information is that he was killed in an Oxford crash ( No serial and no Form 765c) along with 1382945 LAC Cockburn while detailed for Instrument Flying. "Aircraft last seen low flying in bad weather near Brill Hill (Buckinghamshire). Struck High Tension cables at approx 1150hrs and crashed. Both Members killed".

Alan,

[wwrsimon]

Alan

A family tree on ancestry.co.uk has a clipping from the Melbourne Argus newspaper of Tuesday February 17th 1942 which reported the following, and helps explain his NAA file:

KILLED IN ACCIDENT
LAC Leigh Brereton Sadleir Falkiner, 20, whose death in an aircraft accident is reported, was the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Leigh S. Falkiner, of Domain Rd., South Yarra, and a grandson of the late Mr. Frank S. Falkiner, of Boonoke, NSW. He was educated in England, and later at Geelong GS and Trinity College, Melbourne University, where he studied law. He was good athlete, cricketer, and rifle shot. He went to England to enlist in 1940, and had just completed his training when the accident occurred.

Regards

Simon

[malcolm_raf]

Hi

Falkiner was killed whilst flying in Oxford I, V3906 of No 15 SFTS.

Malcolm