On the 14th of October 1943 this aircraft took off from Topcliffe in order for the crew to test the oil consumption. Soon after taking off
the aircraft swung violently to port and the aircrafts port wing dropped, the pilot was unable to correct the swing and he was also unable to
feather the two port engines. Loosing height fast and in a left hand turn the aircraft clipped the chimney of a house (Rymer's House) in South Kilvington
and at 11.25hrs crashed in an ajoining field where upon it burst into flames. The crew escaped although some sustained injuries. The aircraft was completely destroyed, damage put at Cat E2/FA.
No resaon for the aircrafts swing was ever established. Another source comments that the aircraft had clipped something on the aircraft which in the process of taking
off, Ive found no proof of this yet in my research.
Those known to be on board were:
Pilot - F/O James D Dickson DFM RCAF, of Hampton, NB, Canada. - Seriously injured, suffered lacerations, burns and concussion. He was married at the time of the crash. At the time of this crash he had a total of 754 flying hours, 293 being on the Halifax. It seems logical that he was an instructor at Topcliffe.
? - P/O P Shaw - injured.
? - F/Lt E Cook - injured.
? - F/Sgt S W Dunn - injured.
His DFM was presented at Buckingham Palace on the 30th March 1943, his DFC presented on the 2nd November 1946.
I have yet to locate where the aircraft crashed, this may be between the village and the modern A19 Thirsk by-pass.
James Donald Dickson was born on the 29th October 1920 at Hammond River, New Brunswick, Canada. He lived in Rothesay, New
Brunswick and enlisted in Moncton on the 23rd October 1940.
Following training in Camada he arrived in the UK on 16th
August 1941, were he trained at 23 OTU before being posted to 57 Sqdn on 6th November 1941. He was commissioned as Pilot Officer with
effect from 25th June 1942. Following his service with 57 Sqdn he was on strength of 57 OTU and 1659 Conversion Unit. He came near to
being court-martialled following an accident on 8th October 1942 when piloting Wellington X3719 which hit a power line near
North Luffenham, heavy damage was caused to the aircrafts nose, both propellers and starboard mainplane. He then was posted to 419 Sqdn
on 14th February until 14th June 1943; Whilst there he ran off runway in Halifax JB859 on returning from operations on 13th May 1943;
no blame was attached. He subsequently completed two tours and had flown a total of 53 sorties (323 operational hours). He then was posted to
1659 Heavy Conversion Unit on 14th June 1943 to 29th November 1943. Following his crash at Thirsk on 14th October 1943, detailed above,
He was repatriated to Canada on 3rd December 1943 where upon he went to 5 OTU at Boundary Bay before serving with 164 Sqdn. Post war he served
with 435 Sqdn, 426 Sqdn and was awarded the Air Force Cross for services during the Korean Air Lift. He later served with 412 Sqdn before his life was cut short.
He died of Polio in the UK on 26th July 1953. Hugh Halliday's account has been used in this brief bi-og.