LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Beverley John Wentworth THOMSON
Service No: 421138
Born: Wagga Wagga NSW, 25 March 1923
Enlisted in the RAAF: 7 December 1941
Unit: No. 12 Advanced Flying Unit (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 12 Advanced Flying Unit Wellington aircraft LN553), Suffolk, 6 January 1945, Aged 21 Years
Buried: Pembrey (St Illtyd) Churchyard, Carmarthenshire, Wales
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Harold Wentworth Thomson and Madge Thomson; husband of Mary Thomson, of Llanelly
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 6 January 1945, Wellington LN553 took off at 1350 hours to carry out a cine gun exercise. At 1454 hours the aircraft approached to land and 100 yards up the runway made a heavy wheel landing (with flaps down), and opened up to go round again. The aircraft climbed steadily to a height of 4/500 feet and retracted the undercarriage. It then turned sharply to port and immediately went into a spin at a steep angle from which it did not recover. Six of the crew members were killed in the crash and Aircraftman Ford was injured. In the Inquiry into the accident it was considered that “the Pilot must have selected flaps up and the flaps must have come up so suddenly, that the aircraft assumed a nose down attitude from which the pilot could not recover.”
The crew members of LN553 were:
Aircraftman II John Frederick Bartholomew (1853291) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Student)
Aircraftman II Peter Hixon Cain (1893959) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Student)
Warrant Officer Cecil Gordon Dear (926813) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Instructor)
Aircraftman II Cecil Maurice Field (1892921) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Student)
Aircraftman II F R Ford (3020454) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Student) Injured
Aircraftman II Barry Campbell Hay (1823249) (RAFVR) (Air Gunner Student)
Flying Officer Beverley John Wentworth Thomson (421138) (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, 166/39/431