Air Crashes Near the Glenkens
Regular readers of the Gazette will know that I wrote a series of articles on Air Crashes in the Glenkens (issues 89, 95, 100 and 112).
As these were well received, I thought that you might like to read about a few nearby air crashes, mostly in the Stewartry.
Ina Wood (nee Hamilton) with Jean Brown viewing plaque to commemorate Ina’s family, at Dundrennan Parish Church.
I will begin with one of the saddest tales, from Dundrennan. On 18 July 1944 a Bristol Beaufighter (serial JL 893) crashed on a house in the village killing the crew of two; Sgt Pilot E M Young and Navigator Flight Sergeant H A Wiles. Also killed were four of the Hamilton family in the house; parents James and Georgina along with children Henry and Agnes. The sole survivor was daughter Georgina (known as Ina) who was badly injured. There are stories of the sound of the aircraft circling, presumably looking for somewhere to land, before the crash.
Until 2010, there was no memorial to this tragedy when one was at last unveiled beside the parish church. Daughter Ina attended the unveiling on the 66th anniversary of the tragedy. In the photograph, Ina (then Wood) is the lady in the blue jacket, the lady beside her is Jean Brown who was the driving force behind getting the memorial erected (see photo).
Near Loch Skerrow or, more accurately, in the woodland to the West of the site of the Little Water of Fleet Viaduct, stands a crude mortared cairn surrounded by twisted remnants of an air crash.
I had heard rumours of the crash site but very little was known. In August 2008, together with Bob Peace, a fellow member of Galloway Mountain Rescue Team, we visited the site to photograph it and record the exact position.
Members of Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum, 2009 at cairn to commemorate air crash near Loch Skerrow.
Research over several months, assisted by members of Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum, determined that this was the site of a crash of an RAF Typhoon serial JR 439 on 18 March 1944. Canadian Pilot Kenneth Osborne Mitchell of 440 Squadron was killed in the crash at just twenty-two years of age and he is buried in Ayr cemetery. At the time, 440 Squadron were based at Prestwick and in training prior to moving down to Kent to combat the V1 flying bombs.
The story of the crash site is that it was only discovered when local workers were called to investigate a power outage in the area caused by the aircraft crashing into cables; and the story of the cairn is that the pilot’s parents had requested some form of memorial at the crash site. Efforts to contact the family in 2008/09 were unsuccessful. It should be noted that, in 2008, there was nothing at the site to show what had happened there, or when; just the cairn and wreckage.
I decided that the memorial should remain anonymous no longer and, in fine weather on 18 March 2009 (the 65th anniversary of the crash), with a small group, I revisited the cairn and placed a plaque on the cairn giving details of the crash and the pilot who died. Present on the day were members from the Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum and my late wife, Betty. The plaque also bears the phrase ‘until the day break, and shadows flee away’ which is the same as his parents chose to have inscribed on his gravestone (bottom right photo).
Please note that removal of any item from a military crash site would be a criminal offence. To be continued…
Paul Goodwin