LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Harry Harwood LAWSON
Service No: 400204
Born: Castlemaine VIC, 9 June 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 July 1940
Unit: No. 42 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Leuchars, Fife
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 42 Squadron Beaufort I aircraft W6529), Fife, 29 November 1941, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Leuchars Cemetery, Scotland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Sir Harry Sutherland Wightman Lawson, K.C.M.G., and Lady Olive Adele Lawson, of Armadale, Victoria, Australia; husband of Alice Elizabeth Lawson, of Geelong, Victoria. LL.M. (Melbourne).
Roll of Honour: Castlemaine VIC
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 29 November 1941, Beaufort W6529 flew into a hill at Pusk, Fife, in poor visibility at 150 feet. The accident was attributed to the pilot being concerned at losing sight of the aerodrome in cloud and so turned too sharply, stalling into the ground.
The crew members of W6529 were:
Pilot Officer Harry Harwood Lawson (400204) (Pilot)
Sergeant Thomas Wensley Ogden (759141) (RAF)
Sergeant Brain John Perrin (1375521) (RAF)
Pilot Officer Henry Lawson Russell (101579) (RAF)
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
McNeill, Ross RAF Coastal Command Loses of the Second World War Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1941, Midland Publications UK, 2003
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9300 Lawson H H