1936 Crash

[Steve Smith]

Gents,

Looking for burial details please : Hawker Hind K.5516 218 Squadron October 6th 1936. The squadron was participating in a number of dive bombing exercises, on this day Hawker Hind K.5516 was being put through its paces when the upper wing folded while the pilot attempted to recover from a practice dive-bombing simulation at Theddlethorpe bombing range, Lincolnshire. The ensuring crashed killed both the pilot 25-year old Sergeant George Chapman Dodsworth and his observer, Acting Sergeant Walter James Devoil.

Can anyone oblige with burials please.

TIA

Steve

[Steve Smith]

Wow BUMP !

[149Nut]

Hi Steve,

A little bit of a write up in BCL Vol 1 issue 2, but no burial details, I'm afraid :(

Alan F

[paulmcmillan]

I believe Walter Arthur Devoil was from Hertfordshire so maybe buried there (if not locally at North Coates).

I believe George Chapman Dodsworth was from Easingwold Registration District (spans the boundaries of the counties of Co. Durham and North Riding of Yorkshire) so maybe buried there

[petermcp]

I came across this thread with some surprise. George (Ginger) Chapman was a friend of my fathers, having been on the same pilot training course in Abu Sueir in 1934. When they returned to the UK, George got married but sadly, having crashed in 1936, never lived to see his daughter, born in 1937. My father in due course married the sister of George's wife and I came from that marriage.

So George would have been my uncle by marriage. His daughter lives a mere 200 yards from here so I will ask her if she knows where her father is buried. The link below takes you to a forum which has a picture of the engine which powered the plane that crashed (entry dated November 24th 2011).

http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/life-in-lincolnshire-between-the-wars

[Steve Smith]

I came across this thread with some surprise. George (Ginger) Chapman was a friend of my fathers, having been on the same pilot training course in Abu Sueir in 1934. When they returned to the UK, George got married but sadly, having crashed in 1936, never lived to see his daughter, born in 1937. My father in due course married the sister of George's wife and I came from that marriage.

So George would have been my uncle by marriage. His daughter lives a mere 200 yards from here so I will ask her if she knows where her father is buried. The link below takes you to a forum which has a picture of the engine which powered the plane that crashed (entry dated November 24th 2011).

http://www.rodcollins.com/wordpress/life-in-lincolnshire-between-the-wars

Peter,

Thank you for your reply and fascinating link.

I would be interested in any details on this incident.

Kind regards

[petermcp]

Hello Steve. George Dodsworth is buried at Easingwold church, Yorkshire with his parents.

Can't help much with Walter Devoil except to say that, according to the "Find My Past" website he was born in Ware, Hertfordshire so he could be there somewhere.

Regards

Pete.

PS. I see I referred to him as George Chapman - senior moment I think!

[petermcp]

I remembered today that my Dad, when he wrote his memoirs, included an old newspaper clipping about the accident. It was probably in a local paper and goes as follows:

Quote>
TWO RAF MEN KILLED
Plane catches fire and crashes into the sea.
From our own correspondent
Grimsby, Tuesday

Two RAF sergeants were killed today when their machine crashed in flames
near Theddlethorpe bombing range, North Cotes Aerodrome, near Grimsby.

They were Sergeants George Chapman Dodsworth and Walter James Devoil
of No. 218 (Bomber) Squadron, stationed at Upper heyford, which is now at
North Cotes for bombing and air firing practice.

The machine crashed during bombing exercises.

A roadman who saw the accident said that the machine caught fire about a
quarter of a mile out to sea and nose-dived into the water.

Boats put out and recovered the bodies.
Unquote>


It's interesting that there was no mention of fire in the Rod Collins link. As it was a main spar failure, maybe the roadman was mistaken!