LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Patrick Daniel HORRIGAN
Service No: 425013
Born: Toowoomba QLD, 21 August 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 December 1941
Unit: No. 6 Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 6 Operational Training Unit Oxford aircraft LF328), Scotland, 11 October 1943, Aged 22 Years
Buried: Dumfries (St Andrew) Roman Catholic Cemetery, Dumfriesshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Patrick Vincent and Lucy Annie Horrigan, of Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Miles QLD
Remembered: Panel 124, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On the 11th October 1943, Oxford LF328 from RAF Silloth, Cumberland, was detailed to carry out an operational training radio exercise. The aircraft crashed at 0900 hours near Finnie Gill, Scotland, and all on board were killed.
There were no eye witnesses to the accident, but a Royal Observer Corps Observer heard an aircraft but could not see it, and in his opinion the engines sounded normal, though appeared to increase in speed as though diving. The aircraft hit the ground in almost a vertical dive. The cause of the accident was obscure, but it was considered possible that the Pilot had lost control of the aircraft in cloud, and the aircraft dived with not sufficient height to recover.
The crew members of LF328 were:
Sergeant Edmund Hughes Berry (417448) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Warrant Officer I John Francis Charles Cabot (R/77411) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Patrick Daniel Horrigan (425013) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frank Leslie George Price (1432802) (RAFVR) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Dennis Ivor Wildman (1331147) (RAFVR) (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, 166/18/203