LEST WE FORGET
Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry Robert MORTON
Service No: 410078
Born: Lilydale VIC, 17 March 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1941
Unit: No. 5 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 5 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit Hudson aircraft T9352), off the Scottish Coast, 30 October 1943, Aged 20 Years
Buried: Portree (Stronuirinish) Cemetery, Inverness-shire, Scotland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Frank Francis Joseph and Henrietta Morton, of Lilydale, Victoria, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Lilydale VIC
Remembered: Panel 127, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 1944 hours on the night of 29 October 1943, Hudson T9352 took off from RAF Long Kesh to carry out a night non-operational flight to St Kilda via Barra Head and return to Portrush. Wireless Telegraph to go was received at 2005 hours, but no other messages were received until 2301 hours when a third class fix was obtained giving a position 56.16N0 07.50E. After this nothing further was heard from the aircraft, but later an aircraft was reported in the Oban district which might have been T9352. Searches for the missing aircraft over the next 48 hours produced no result. The body of Flight Sergeant Morton was recovered from the sea on 9 December 1943.
The crew members of Hudson T9352 were:
Flight Sergeant John Ross Baxter (R/138300) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Earl Kitchener Maden (R/135967) (RCAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Alan Richard MacDonald (130994) (RAFVR) (Pilot and Aircraft Captain)
Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry Robert Morton (410078) (Navigator)
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, 166/28/175