LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Arthur James FOOTE
Service No: 407557
Born: Adelaide SA, 15 October 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 9 November 1940
Unit: No. 11 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 11 Operational Training Unit Wellington aircraft X9905), London, 10 February 1942, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Bassingbourn cum Kneeworth Cemetery, Cambridgeshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of William Buchanan Foote and Fanny Foote, of Adelaide, South Australia
Roll of Honour: Adelaide SA
Remembered: Panel 122, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: World War II Honour Roll, National War Memorial of SA, North Terrace, Adelaide
Wellington X9905 took off from the Steeple Morden, Cambridgeshire, Satellite airfield at 1827 hours on the night of 10 February 1942, detailed to carry out a night cross-country training exercise. By about 2035 hours, the crew were in extreme difficulties and while trying to plot their position the aircraft crashed in the Harrow Green Leytonstone district of northeast London. All the crew members were killed in the crash.
The crew members of X9905 were:
Sergeant Arthur James Foote (407557) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Arthur Wilfred Ford (1310041) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Harold Ernest Jowett (R/64869) (RCAF) (Observer)
Sergeant William Mance (1265410) (RAFVR) (Pilot)
Sergeant Allen Charles Elliott Rogers (964849) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant John Sharrock Taylor (1024292) (RAFVR) (Second Pilot)
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, 163/113/165