LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Gordon Roch CAMPBELL
Service No: 410946
Born: Buniyong VIC, 27 Marc 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 24 April 1942
Unit: No. 1661 Conversion Unit (RAF), RAF Station Winthorpe
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1661 Conversion Unit Stirling aircraft EF186), Lincolnshire, 4 December 1944, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Oxford (Botley) Cemetery, Oxfordshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Walton Skelton Campbell and Mary Ellen Campbell, of Hawthorn East, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Myrtleford VIC
Remembered: Panel 120, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 2030 hours on the 4 December 1944, Stirling EF186 took off from Winthorpe to carry out Exercise No 7, which consisted of corkscrews, instrument flying and recovery from unusual attitudes, an exercise which demanded high levels of concentration on the part of the pilot, especially at night. At approximately 2055 hours the aircraft entered a cumulo-nimbus cloud, and is presumed to have iced over almost immediately. Out of control, the aircraft crashed at Breeder Hills, four miles due west from Grantham, Lincolnshire, and the nine on board were killed.
The crew members of EF186 were:
Flying Officer Gordon Roch Campbell (410946) (Instructor Pilot)
Sergeant Leslie George Diggins (1808390) (RAFVR) (Flight Engineer)
Sergeant Kevin Cyril Glinz (R/109197) (RCAF) (Mid Upper Gunner)
Sergeant Eric William Heaton (1494490) (RAFVR) (Navigator)
Sergeant William Ley Howarth (1863748) (RAFVR) (Staff Flight Engineer)
Flight Sergeant Derrick John Standring (1602092) (RAFVR) (Pilot under instruction)
Sergeant Bernard Stowe (798810) (RAFVR) (Rear Gunner)
Sergeant Alma Louis Terry (1398111) (RAFVR) (Air Bomber)
Sergeant Anthony Winn (2206056) (RAFVR) (Wireless Operator Air)
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, 166/7/750