410204 - Unaccounted airmen - 4-2-1941

[Henk Welting]

What caused the death of and/or what were the places of death registration for:

LAC (Obs u/t) Leslie H. BELLRINGER - 1164831 - not found Flight archives;
LAC Albert E. COPPINS - 1209016 - not found Flight archives;
F/Lt (Pilot) Robert F. HALLIWELL - 33341 (fm Canada) - 62 Sqn (Singapore) - died of wounds or injuries received on active service - buried Taiping WC;
AC1 Eric S. ORBELL - 1352331 - died of wounds or injuries received on active service - registered Ely;
Cpl Norman E. ROWE - 905205 - not found Flight archivesw - registered Ely;
Sgt Peter SHARP - 156091 - not found Flight archives - registered Stafford, and
Sgt (Pilot) Frank G.P. SHAW - 904873 - not found Flight archives - registered Chippenham.

Registered Ely may have been casualties died at RAF Ely Hospital ?

Proposed aircraft serials for this day:

Henley I - L3271 - 1 AACU - crashed in forced landing near Carew Cheriton.
Lysander II - L6857 - 1 SAC - crashed on approach Old Sarum.
Oxford II - P8988 - 2 FIS - collided with K3601 near Cranwell.
Valentia - K3601 - 1 SS - collided with P8988 near Cranwell.

Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

[Dick]

Hi Henk
From Warner's "Blenheim" p555,24/02/41, Blenheim L1104,62 Sqn,engine cut, hit trees, attempting forced landing at Sungei-Patani,destroyed by fire. F/O R Halliwell dragged clear by LAC J Haynes, but died of injuries. Sgt P Walker(Obs) and Sgt G Couzens(W/Op-Ag) both killed. All 3 buried in Taiping War Cemetery.Note the date which ties in with CWGC.
Bellringer and Coppins don't come up and may be registered in Scotland. Could Bellringer as a u/t Obs have been on the a/c that crashed on Goat Fell on 28/1/41and died later of his injuries?
Regards
Dick

[davew]

Henk

Bellringer registered at Ayr, I am am unable to give you more detail at present as Scotland's People site is throwing a wobbly, probably weekend maintenance.
Coppins is not registered in Scotland.

Regards

DaveW

[Dick]

Hi Henk
With Bellringer registered at Ayr, it remains possible that he could have been brought from Brodick(Arran's ferry port and with an airfield) to the mainland by sea or air to go to a Hospital in Ayr
Regards
Dick

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dick and Dave.
Dave: What's your idea to Dicks' proposal re Bellringer ?
Regards and good weekend,
Henk.

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dick for your excellent info on F/O Halliwell and the correct date. Will inform Allison and Bill Walker (the latter having all my proposed amendments on 'They Shall Grow Not Old').
Best regards,
Henk.

[davew]

Henk

I can now tell you that Leslie H Bellringer died at Ayr County Hospital of 'extensive burns and shock'. His death was reported by his father, not by the admin of a service unit. His 'usual' address is given as Dankeath House, Symington, Kilmarnock (about 5m E of Ayr airfield) and his 'home' address as 40 Ashley Road, Taunton, Somerset.

regards

DaveW

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dave for this additional info on Bellringer.
Regards,
Henk.

[Dick]

Hi Henk
Following from DaveW's latest post . Ayr County Hospital sounds as though it could have been Ayr's main Medical hospital which at the time was at Heathfield in Ayr. there was also an RAF Heathfield, but I don't know it's function. It is all very close to Prestwick airfield.The injuries could have been sustained in a crash. The Dankeath House address could have been a hotel or boarding house. It is now apparently neglected, but is the centre of a Leisure Park and Caravan site.If we are really dealing with a casualty from the crash on Arran on 28/1/41, there is enough time for him to have been brought to Ayr, and for Hubert Thomas Bellringer, his father, to have come up from Taunton to be with a dangerously ill son, staying at Dankeath House whilst he was in Scotland. I would have expected his death to have been registered by the Almoner's Office of the hospital, but if his Father was present as he died ,he couldn't be ruled out.
It is ,of course, pure speculation and proves nothing except that you might need a few more small pieces of the puzzle to be sure one way or the other.
Regards
Dick

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dick. Added some info to his name on the 'unaccounted list' and also a note to Anson serial N4939 (28-1-1941).
Regards,
Henk.

[Tim Bishop]

Henk,

Just for the record Henley L.3271 was operating with 'B' Flight from RAF Carew Cheriton when aircraft caught fire in the air and crashed; pilot P/O W.H.H. Mussett and Observer 545993 T/Cpl D. Price suffered serious injuries from burns.

Kind regards,

Tim

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Tim for this additional info on Henley L3271.
Regards,
Henk.

[dennis_burke]

LAC L h. BELLRINGER - 1164831 - In the DOAS list Mar 6th 41 flight magazine;

No luck with Coppins 21, Rowe 23, Sharp 40 or Shaw.

[Henk Welting]

Hello Dennis & Col,
I had BELLRINGER (unknown source) on Anson N4939 of 1 AONS (Wigtown). Hit hill in bad visibility 28-1-1941 and crashed Am Binein 1 mile N of Goat Fell, Isle of Arran. Died 4-2-1941 of severely burns and shock in a hospital at Ayr/Heathfield.
Have one's doubts now reading that he is registered 'doas'.
Regards,
Henk.

[Martyn A Critchlow]

LAC (Obs u/t) Leslie H. BELLRINGER - 1164831 - He received extensive burns in a fire at a Scottish Aerodrome. His parents were told about their son's serious condition at Midnight on Monday but he had died by the time they arrived at the hospital.
(Taunton Courier, 8 February 1941)

Martyn

[wwrsimon]

Hello

LAC Albert E. COPPINS - 1209016 - registered March 1942, Croydon. Note that the CWGC entry for him list his date of death as February 4th 1942, as does his gravestone photo on findagrave:

https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2733439/coppins,-albert-edward/

https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2014/80/56201241_1395517576.jpg

Sgt Peter SHARP - 156091 - the Perthsire Advertier of February 8th 1941 carried the fowlloing announcement:

SHARP - At Stafford Military Hospital, on 4th February 1941, after a serious illness, Sgt. Peter Sharp, R.A.F., of Hykeham, Lincoln, beloved husband of Gladys Eagle, and elder son of Mr John Sharp and the late Mrs Sharp, 23 Whitefriars Street, Perth.

Regards

Simon

[jonheyworth]

Norman Edward Rowe 905205, attached to RAF Hospital Ely was on duty in the Warden's lodge at the hospital, when a bomb landed 20 yards from the lodge killing him outright, his body being found on the lodge steps

[jonheyworth]

Harry Thwaites 1069816 , was admitted seriously ill to the Port Sudan Civil hospital on February where he died of dystentry

[jonheyworth]

Harry Thwaites 1069816 , was admitted seriously ill to the Port Sudan Civil hospital on February where he died of dystentry

Harry Thwaytes 1069816 , was admitted seriously ill to to the Port Sudan Civil hospital on February 2 where he died of dystentry

[jonheyworth]

Peter Sharp 156091 , attached to 16 MU , died in Stafford Infirmary of peritonitis