LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Brian Wallace POLSON
Service No: 411641
Born: Marrickville NSW, 1 July 1921
Enlisted in the RAAF: 21 May 1941
Unit: RAF Station North Front, Gibraltar
Died: Aircraft Accident: (Hudson aircraft FK621), Spain, 12 March 1943, Aged 21 Years
Buried: At Sea
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Alfred Leslie and Hilda Elizabeth Polson, of Wollongong, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Gibraltar Memorial, Gibraltar
Remembered: Panel 128, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0132 hours on 12 March 1943, Hudson FK621 took off detailed to carry out an operational flight from Gibraltar to the United Kingdom. FK621 crashed on take-off into Spanish territory and all the crew members were killed. Gibraltar lacked a suitable burial ground and as the only cemetery had suffered severe damage by enemy action, permission was given to bury the crew members at sea.
The crew members of FK621 were:
Sergeant Henry Edwin Ash (414490) (RNZAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Harold James Crowe (J/11646) (RCAF) (Navigator)
Flying Officer Brian Wallace Polson (411641) (Pilot)
Sergeant Ronald Charles Granville Rickett (412968) (Wireless Air Gunner)
The crew members were burial at sea on 14 March 1943. Their names are commemorated on a Special Memorial at Gibraltar. The Memorial commemorates the names of 91 airmen and soldiers who died during the 1939-1945 war and were buried at sea.
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, 166/35/17