LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Robert James COSGROVE
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 39456
Born: Date, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: 1937
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Waddington, Lincolnshire
Died: Air Operations (No. 50 Squadron Hampden I aircraft L4065), North Sea, 14 April 1940, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of the Hon. Sir Robert Cosgrove KCMG Member of the House of Assembly, Premier of Tasmania and Dame Gertrude Ann Cosgrove DBE of West Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 4, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Supplementary Panel 12, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flight Lieutenant Cosgrove was an Australian Cadet trained for the RAF who embarked for the UK on 12 January 1937.
Hampden R4065 took off from Waddington at 2215 hours on 13 April 1940 for mine-laying (gardening) operations. The aircraft is believed to have crashed in the sea off Mablethorpe, Lincolnshire.
The crew members of L4065 were:
Sergeant Frederick William Batchelor (563051) (RAF) (Observer)
Flight Lieutenant Robert James Cosgrove (39456) (RAF) (Pilot)
Corporal James Doran (535553) (RAF) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Gordon William Everatt (580714) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley W R, Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War, Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1940, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1992
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990