Maxwell John Shipp WALSH

[afcbsimon]

I am looking for the cause of death of Sgt M.J.S. Walsh (536838) a Wop/Ag who served on 30 Sqn.

According to CWGC this airman died on 24/05/41 whilst serving on 30 Sqn and is buried at the Cairo War Memorial Cemetary.

Flat Out - The Story of 30 Sqn by John Hamlin indicates in the appendix that he was killed in Crete.

The date and Sqn indicate that he may have been killed in Crete where the Sqn lost a lot of men however if this was the case he would surely not have been buried in Cairo and he would also have been commemorated on 30 Sqn's memorial there, he is'nt.

Any ideas?

Regards,
Simon

[dennis_burke]

His name is printed in the RAF Casualty List 72, printed inteh Flight magazine dated July 3rd, 1941.

He is listed as Died on Active Service - , implying he did not loose his life as a result of enemy action or in say an aircraft crash. He may have died as a result of a car accident, drowning, or illness. The book possibly lists Crete as place of death due to that campaign being ongoing at that time. One could not know for sure unless his servce details were obtained.

This link ought to bring you to the page.

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1941/1941%20-%201488.html?search=Hadlum

He is buried in the grave adjacent to Pvt. James Gordon of the 2nd Lncaster (KORR), also died the same date.

The blurb on the cemtery does point out that the Cairo area was a large hospital center, so he may well have died of an illness perhaps.
http://www.cwgc.org/search/cemetery_details.aspx?cemetery=11000&mode=1

[afcbsimon]

Thanks for your very informative reply Dennis.

Further leads to run with.

Simon