LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Richard Trathen BARROW
Service No: 421149
Born: Junee NSW, 23 July 1913
Enlisted in the RAAF: 31 January 1942
Unit: No. 32 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 32 Operational Training Unit Hampden aircraft AN121), off Vancouver Island, 13 April 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Victoria (Royal Oak) Burial Park, British Columbia
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Lionel Richard and Margaret Lilian Barrow; husband of Ethel Annie Barrow, of Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Kogarah NSW
Remembered: Panel 133, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 13 April 1943, Hampden AN121 took off from Patricia Bay detailed to carry out an air firing, navigation and low level bombing exercise. The aircraft had just completed the low level bombing run, when it turned over on its back and crashed into the sea upside down at 1430 hours off Cowichan Head, Vancouver Island. Three of the crew members were killed in the crash and the other was slightly injured.
The crew members of AN121 were:
Sergeant Richard Trathen Barrow (421149) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Sergeant Donald Duncan MacGilivray (R/139766) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer James Smith Peterkin (135517) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant K. E. Thompson (R/166015) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner) Slightly Injured
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/5/124