Wellington at Wykeham Abbey.
At 15.35hrs the crew on this aircraft took off from Leconfield to carry out a fighter affiliation exercise with a Spitfire (Spitfire TD236,
of "F" Flight piloted by Sqdn Ldr L A Wood). The aircraft flew in a northerly direction, met up with the Spitfire over Driffield and then owing to low
cloud the exercises were carried out at 10,000 feet over the Scarborough area.
On board was a pilot, a gunnery instructor and three trainee air gunners.
During the exercise it was taking part, the Wellington was practicing taking evasive action when attacked by a fighter,
it was thought that the pilot was made such a turn downwards, the last of the exercise, but immediately after the last attack
the Wellington went into a near verticle dive from between 6 to
7,000 feet from which the pilot did not recover. At 16.45hrs the aircraft crashed into the grounds of Wykeham Abbey and whilst not
catching fire it disintergated on impact creating a large crater. All five on board stood no chance, they were killed instantly.
Those killed were:
Pilot - WO Roland Harrison RAFVR, aged 25, of High Wycombe, buried High Wycombe. He had a total of 732 hours flying at the time
of his death, 37hours of which were on the Wellington. He had begun his training in January 1943.
Air Gunner - F/Sgt Peter Ingram RAFVR, aged 22, of Fulham, buried Fulham.
W Op / Mech Air - WO John Forest Armstrong RAFVR, aged 21, of Middlesborough, cremated Darlington.
Air Gunnery Instructor - F/Lt John Cristopher Haldon RAFVR, aged 26, of Chideock, Dorset. Commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, his body not recovered
from the crash site.
Air Gunner - WO Frederick Charles Stiff RAFVR, aged 34, of Hartest, Suffolk. Buried Hartest, Suffolk.
1 Dec 1943 - completed repairs at Vickers, Weybridge.
17 July 1946 - Test flown and rear doors found locked up.
18 July 1946 - Test flown and elevator trim for level flight was found incorrectly set, the cables were adjusted for correct movement.
23 July 1946 - Flown by F/Lt Meikle, who reported the aircraft nose heavy and the port engine was running slow. Extra ballast added and port engine revs adjusted.
24 July 1946 - Flown by W/O Schwedoski, who reported aircraft was satisfactory. (He would be killed soon after in a crash at Appleton le Moors.)
24 July 1946 - Later in day, fatal crash at Wykeham.
The crash report stated that the aircraft should never have been in the air.
F/Lt Haldon's name on the Runnymede Memorial.
F/Sgt Peter Ingram was attached to the CGS from 100 Squadron, and the 100 Squadron ORB records his death. His brother was also an AG and was killed on the
17th April 1944, and is buried in Delhi War Cemetery. Thanks to Greg Harrison for this information.
The aircraft crashed close to where this modern road now is.
Graham Sharpe and I visited the crash site in March 2005, a number of small peices of the aircraft are still present at the site. We would
like to express our thanks to Lord Downe for allowing our visit and for the help he was able to give us allowing the site to be located
without difficulty. I would also like to thank Mr Sharpe for fixing up our visit.
To anyone aiming to visit the site, please note that the area is strictly private property. Not only that, please treat
the area with respect, the body of Fl/Lt Haldon was not recovered from the site. There is no memorial to him at Wykeham.
The resulting crash investigation reported that the aircraft had been reported as being nose-heavy in the weeks leading up to the crash,
it was checked but was passed as serviceable. Brief details of previous incidents are as follows :
Two days later the same School would have another accident when a Spitfire collided with a Wellington at Appleton Le Moors.
This accident is covered in my North York Moors Listings.