LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant William Tait CUTHBERTSON
Service No: 415310
Born: Kalgoorlie WA, 20 May 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 14 September 1941
Unit: No. 14 Operational Training Unit (RAF), RAF Cottesmore, Rutland
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 14 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft DV628), Rutland, 31 March 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Cottesmore (St. Nicholas) Churchyard Extension, Rutland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Douglas and Mary Lorna Cuthbertson, of Leonora, Western Australia.
Roll of Honour: Leonora WA
Remembered: Panel 121, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Cenotaph Undercroft, State War Memorial, Kings Park WA
Wellington DV628 when taking off on the night of 31st March 1943, was wrecked when is struck another Wellington parked at RAF Cottesmore, and it hit a hangar as well. Three of the crew were injured and two were killed in the accident.
The crew members of DV6280 were:
Pilot Officer Mervyn Andrew Crombie (414536) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 14 Match 1946
Sergeant William Tait Cuthbertson (415310) (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Robert Wallace Humphrey (413198) (Pilot) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 24 September 1945
Sergeant Terence McDaniel (415267) Injured, Discharged from the RAAF: 9 January 1945
Sergeant Eric Arthur Robinson (1330303) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/8/78