LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Mervyn Henry MORGAN
Service No: 402381
Born: Sydney NSW, 28 April 1919
Enlisted in the RAAF: 19 August 1940
Unit: No. 14 Service Flying Training School RAF
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 14 Service Flying Training School Oxford aircraft N4730), near Lyneham, 24 October 1941, Aged 24 Years
Buried: Lyneham (St Michael) Churchyard, Wiltshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Allen Herbert and Doris May Morgan, of Lithgow, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Dubbo NSW
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Dubbo Memorial Drive and Rose Garden, Dubbo NSW
Remembered: Bathurst Memorial Entertainment Centre, Bathurst NSW
On 24 October 1941, Oxford N4730 took off on a dual ab-initio night training flight. The aircraft crashed near the aerodrome at Gaysforth Wood, near Lyneham, and both the crew members were killed. A Court of Inquiry into the accident stated: “the accident may have been due to heavy overshoot action too late, coupled with a change of wind and failure to maintain a normal rate of climb. The aircraft struck trees one mile east of the aerodrome up wind of the flare path.”
The crew members of N4730 were:
Sergeant Mervyn Henry Morgan (402381) (Instructor Pilot)
Leading Aircraftman Edward James Perry Tapper (656689) (RAF) (Student 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 Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/145/149
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line