410807 - Unaccounted airmen - 7-8-1941

[Henk Welting]

What were the places of death registration for:

Sgt (Pilot) Owen R.B. DICK - 1288945;
LAC (Pilot u/t) George E. PYPER - 1380753;
LAC (Pilot u/t) Edward H. ('Teddy') RIDGEWELL - 971228;
AC2 Walter SCOTNEY - 1026704, and
LAC (Pilot u/t) Dennis F. VAUGHAN - 655842.

Proposed aircraft losses for this day:

Hurricane I - P3702 - 55 OTU - crashed; no further details.
Oxford II - V3689 - 11 FTS - crashed on overshoot Shawbury.
Tiger Moth II - T7341 - 11 EFTS - crashed Kingswell Wood near Scone.

Regards and thanks for your help.
Henk.

[Dick]

Hi HENK
Pyper,21, is registered at Whitchurch,which is the right area for a death at Shawbury.
Scotney,21, registered at Deben, Suffolk.
Owen Dick,didn't show on the register but I note he is buried at Perth a few miles from Scone,?T7341
Neither Ridgewell or Vaughan came up on the register, both are buried in England but could have died in Scotland
Regards
Dick

[thorne83]

Hi Henk, Pyper was indeed the solo pilot of Oxford V3689.

Cheers, Tom

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Dick and Tom for your response; much appreciated.
Regards,
Henk.

[Ken MacLean]

Henk,

Sgt. Dick, LAC Pyper, Lac Ridgewell and LAC Vaughn all KOAS;

AC2 Scotney DOAS.

[davew]

Henk

Dick, Vaughan and Ridgewell, place of death recorded as Kingswell Wood, St Martins, Perthshire and so were were in TM T3741.

But there are only two places in a TM!

regards

DaveW

[Dick]

Dave
Did you get a look at cause of death for the TM in Perthshire? Perhaps 1 or 2 killed in the crash and 1 or 2 killed by accident during the recovery of the wreckage or bodies. St Martins is very close to the airfield and an Airfield rescue crew going to the scene doesn't look unreasonable.
Regards
Dick

[davew]

Dick,

I think you do well to query, but the cause, time, date and location are the same for all three, listed consecutively in the register

Dick is described as pilot instructor and the other two as LAC under training pilot.

Unless there was another a/c as yet unidentified.

regards

DaveW

[Dick]

Thanks Dave
The thing I thought of was that one of the U/T pilots was in fact in the runway caravan and went to the scene of the crash with a Fire Crew. If you look at
http://www.content-delivery.co.uk/aviation/airfields/Scone.html you will find St Martins close to the airfield (NE). I wouldn't be surprised if Trainees spent part of their time in Groundschool and from time to time were detailed to join the crew of the Runway caravan as Temp Duty pilot,a duty they would expect on a Sqn.Your 2nd a/c is also a possibility, 3 in a Tiger is a little "cosy"!!
Regards
Dick

[Henk Welting]

Thanks friends. Followed your discussion. AHB/RAF may know but they won't answer my letter(s) due to understaffment, privacy reasons and because I'm not a next of kin. Annotations made.
Regards,
Henk.

[Litcham_Lad]

Henk (and others)

AB Serials has TM T7362 as DBR on this date. It belonged to the same unit as T7341; it is not stretching coincidence too much to assume that the two incidents may be related, especially considering a third fatality in a two-seat aircraft

dg

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Litcham Lad for this link to TM T7362; this could be the solution, but who was on T7341 and who was flying T7362. I didn't mention T7362 in my thread as it was not listed by Air Britain in their Aeromilitaria 'Crashes in UK WW2'.
Regards,
Henk.

[davew]

Gents

Leave this with me for a while.

DaveW

[davew]

From Jim Halley

The accident cards for T7362 and T7341 are missing. However by reference to the casualty slips it is clear that there was a collision between them although it is not stated who was in which a/c.

regards

DaveW

[jonheyworth]

Walter Scotney 1026709 | attached to RAF Hornchurch | was killed by the accidental discharge of a machine gun at RAF Martlesham Heath, being dead on arrival at SSQ