LEST WE FORGET
Sergeant Kenneth Frederick THORNTON
Service No: 402623
Born: Warren NSW, 20 September 1916
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 September 1940
Unit: No. 14 Operational Training Unit (RAF), Detachment RAF Station Saltby, Leicestershire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 14 Operational Training Unit Hampden aircraft P 1168), Leicestershire, 9 December 1941, Aged 25Years
Buried: Cottesmore (St. Nicholas) Churchyard Extension, Rutland
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Arthur Charles and Edith Pearl Thornton; husband of Norma Genevieve Thornton, of Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia.
Roll of Honour: Bathurst NSW
Remembered: Panel 131, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Hampden P1168 took off from RAF Saltby on 9th December 1941, for night circuit training. While turning left at 1858 hours, some four miles south of the airfield, the pilot lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft stalled and crashed and both the crew members were killed.
The crew members of P1168 were:
Pilot Officer Osborne Kirkton Fisher (406353) (Pilot)
Sergeant Kenneth Frederick Thornton (402623) (Wireless Air Gunner)
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 Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 163/166/155