Any further info/photos/reminiscences etc of plane crash in Downside Abey/School and any other events in Downside School/Abey during ww2. Thanking you in anticipation for your help. Ronald John Saunders
Hi Ronaldaroo, Just replying as I am an Old Gregorian of 1962, see my Avatar. I do not have any direct experience of the event but was told that it was an RAF bomber which was practicing hedge hopping and lost control due to the changing ground levels crashing on the cricket field and killing something like 50 students, if memory serves, which it frequently does not. There is a memorial monument with the names inscribed near the scene. Regards, Bill
Just remembered from personal experience. Would have been around 1960, we were to parade the whole OTC battalion for inspection on the cricket field by some visiting general who was going to fly in and land in the upper cricket field. All this was surrounded by trees but they had decided that landing was possible. On the day in question the ground was quite wet and inclined to soggy and the general, or his pilot, thought better of it as too dangerous, so they went back and returned about 3 hours later by car. Because of the wet ground we could not sit down so we had a total of about four hours at stand at ease with our Lee Enfield rifles. By the time the march past happened we could hardly walk much less march in time. The cricket field was quite ruined, rows of these feet marks sunk into the mud. The general said something like "Well done chaps" and took off, late for another appointment. What a waste of time. It sticks in my mind as the pain in your legs is quite unforgettable. Bill
Hi Ronald, We just missed each other. I was 1958-1962 and founder member of Ullathorne House, which no longer exists. Also O Cdt. Under Officer in CCF which is as near as I ever got to war, I am glad to say. The ex Irish Guards Sgt Major who ran the CCF, unless you want to count the minor role played by the officers, made a huge impression on me, he was very anti war. I am fascinated with the whole concept of resolving differences by resort to violence and totally sympathetic to those that must do the actual fighting; which explains my time on this and the WW1 site. Cheers, William Compton
Just remembered from personal experience. Would have been around 1960, we were to parade the whole OTC battalion for inspection on the cricket field by some visiting general who was going to fly in and land in the upper cricket field. All this was surrounded by trees but they had decided that landing was possible. On the day in question the ground was quite wet and inclined to soggy and the general, or his pilot, thought better of it as too dangerous, so they went back and returned about 3 hours later by car. Because of the wet ground we could not sit down so we had a total of about four hours at stand at ease with our Lee Enfield rifles. By the time the march past happened we could hardly walk much less march in time. The cricket field was quite ruined, rows of these feet marks sunk into the mud. The general said something like "Well done chaps" and took off, late for another appointment. What a waste of time. It sticks in my mind as the pain in your legs is quite unforgettable. Bill To the technical folk: The attachment on this message was not sent by me. It appears to have something to do with a wreck at sea, I have never seen it and certainly did not attach it to my message. Perhaps a symptom of some technical problems. I report it in case it is used in evidence at any future commital proceedings
Hi Ronaldaroo, Just replying as I am an Old Gregorian of 1962, see my Avatar. I do not have any direct experience of the event but was told that it was an RAF bomber which was practicing hedge hopping and lost control due to the changing ground levels crashing on the cricket field and killing something like 50 students, if memory serves, which it frequently does not. There is a memorial monument with the names inscribed near the scene. Regards, Bill I find this very interesting and am surpised I had not heard of it before. Would like to know more.
Here is a link to a personal experience. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/18/a4056518.shtml It was an RAF training flight and controversial as they may have been out of their training area. Bill
My father was a witness to this crash and a friend of some of the boys who died and were injured, I have collated the records and stories below in an effort to encourage him to tell me what he remembers. Stephen Corsi -------------BBC Article ID: A4056518A crash by a fighter aeroplane on a bank where most of Downside School was gathered to watch a cricket match on Saturday 15 May 1943. The pilot and 9 boys were killed and 14 boys were injured. “I read your account of the crash in the Raven with interest and until then I had no idea that the full picture of what happened that afternoon was unclear. It is now a very long time after the event but I think that it is still not too late to record what I remember seeing.I was playing cricket on the upper field and at the time was fielding in a position facing the pavilion. My concentration was not entirely on the game and I was watching the antics of these two aeroplanes with some interest and even trepidation as they were flying lower than any I had seen before.As was always the case, the instructor was in front and the pupil was flying behind and some ten to twenty feet below his leader. The final pass was very low and over some very tall fir trees at the edge of the field. The first plane cleared these but the second one just touched the tallest tree, probably with its tail, so that its nose tipped downwards. At that height there was no chance for Sub-Lt McCracken, the pilot, to do anything and he ploughed straight into the crowd on the bank.There is a tree with a dead section at the top at approximately the point where the aircraft touched and it would not surprise me if this was the actual tree that was struck and that the dead section had resulted from a partial fracture of the trunk.Everything that happened after that moment is a blur and the only things that I can remember were that we were all given sandwiches the next morning and told to go out and not come back before teatime. I also remember seeing the shrouds laid out in the squash court and only half-believing that underneath these were the bodies of my friends, particularly David Lowndes whom I had already known for seven or eight years. My most vivid memory is of his brother Michael coming back from hospital with his terribly scarred face. On the Monday everything returned to normal and life continued exactly as before being only interrupted for the joint funeral of the dead pilot and boys.I ought to have been in one of the Junior House dormitories with all the other first year boys but had been moved up into the Smythe dormitory at the beginning of that term so I have no recollection of the empty beds on the Saturday night. This might also explain why I was playing cricket when most of my friends were sitting in the crash area.I hope that this helps to clarify the actual sequence of events and I would be very pleased to know whether there is any evidence to support (or disprove) my memory of that terrible event.”- -The following is an extract from Volume Two (Fates: 1943-1998) of my trilogy ‘For Your Tomorrow - A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915’: Sat 15 May 1943 FLEET AIR ARM - ENGLAND Practice 759 Squadron, FAA (Yeovilton, Somerset - HMS Heron) Sea Hurricane IB V6760 - while carrying out a follow-my-leader exercise at low level, crashed onto the Downside Abbey cricket ground, near Chilcompton, 10 miles SW of Bath at 1530. At the time pupils of the Downside Catholic Public School were playing a junior match, and at least eight died and a further nine were injured in the accident. ------------ - The pilot is buried in the Downside Abbey Monastic Cemetery at Stratton-on-the-Fosse. - Pilot: Sub-Lt (A) Alan Cairnhill McCRACKEN, RNZNVR - Age 22. - Shepton Mallet Rural District Council entry in the Imperial War Graves Commission's Register of Civilian Deaths: - Hugh Michael Dearlove -- Aged 14 - David Michael Jennings -- Aged 10 David Hugh Lowndes -- Aged 17 David Lawrence McNabb - --- Aged 14 - Son of W/C L.V. McNabb Brian Richard Patrick McSwiney -- Aged 14 Michael Bagot Quinlan -- Aged 15 Philip Humphrey Peter Rose ---- Aged 14 Keith Edward Charles Stokes -- Aged 15. 11 May 1944 – ---Queen Mary visited Downside to present the Cornwell Medal to Richard Kingsbury who at the time of the Air Crash a year earlier had insisted others should be attended before him Harry Pilgrim – BBC - A4211731 -- I was 13 at the outbreak of war and a weekly boarder at Belmont School, Wood Lane, Falmouth. First thing on our return the headmaster, Major Holt, had us all digging zigzag trenches in the school gardens. At the end of that term I moved on to Downside School, Nr. Bath. There were many air raid warnings and disturbed nights as we all went down stairs to take shelter. The following term Dayrooms became dormitories and vice a versa. With massive sandbagging all around the ground floor we never had disturbed nights again. I say sandbags, but in fact they were mainly filled with earth dug by the boys! As the threat diminished and we had two other schools evacuated to us, sleeping arrangements reversed. I was unaware of any bombs dropping near the school, despite The Abbey Tower being such a fine landmark, especially from the air. It proved impossible to black out the Abbey Church, so it was agreed that suitably shaded lights would suffice. Sadly one of our own planes crashed onto the playing field during a major cricket match, killing 9 of my contempories. The 50th and 60th anniversaries were marked at the school and I attended both. Sadly very few were able to attend the last one. Downside were almost totally self-sufficient, they made their own electricity, had a large farm, slaughter house and extensive kitchen gardens. They even had their own coal mine and gas-works. Those not playing games were required to do “Ganging”. This involved working on the land in some way. One of our most notable days was a visit by Her Royal Highness Queen Mary, who came to present the Cornwell Scout Badge to a pupil from Worth, who were evacuated to Downside from Crawley. This badge is often known as “The Scouts VC”. The Oratory were also evacuated to Downside a little later on.Harry Pilgrim, Falmouth. - harry@meudon.co.uk - -Sir Edward Michael Ogden,Michael himself was sent to Downside for his education, where he won the prize for history, and narrowly escaped death when a training aircraft crashed into spectators watching a cricket match. Ogden was standing 20 yards from where it came down, and a piece of the wreckage passed over him and killed a boy standing further away. Ogden ran back to the Headmaster's office to raise the alarm.
Some further information The Times, Wednesday, Jun 02, 1943; pg. 2; Issue 49561; col F Downside Plane Crash Inquest EVIDENCE OF LOW FLYING - AIR INSTRUCTOR'S DENIAL The jury at the resumed inquest yester­day on the bodies of the nine boys who were killed when an aeroplane crashed on the cricket ground of DownsideSchool found that the death of Brian McSwiney (one of the boys) was caused by injuries received through the accidental crashing of the aeroplane. The foreman said:—" In our opinion there no evidence to show -what caused the crash." The Coroner said he would formally call them on another date to hear medical evidence regarding the other boys and to return a similar verdict. Eye-witnesses described the crashing of the aeroplane on the cricket ground of Downside Abbey at the resumed inquest at the school yesterday on the bodies of the nine boys who lost their lives. The Rev. J. B. Orchard, a housemaster, said that he was watching the game from the pavilion veranda. He saw two aeroplanes circling the ground closer to the tree-tops than he had ever seen aeroplanes before. This happened several times. One flew across the field. It was rising, and then it banked steeply He had never seen an aeroplane make such a rapid change of direction. It seemed to level out, and he noticed the nose was pointing more and more steeply downwards. Then, it seemed to level out just as it got to ground level. It seemed to touch the ground, and that diverted its course towards him a little. The machine went over the edge of the bank on which the pavilion stands, and he heard a splintering, rending sound, and the aeroplane disappeared down the bank. It stopped about 20 yards away from the pavilion, and flame and black smoke spouted out. He saw boys on the banks scattering as the plane approached. There were fivecricket games going on, one with an Army side, and there were 200 people watching or playing. They would be dearly visible to the pilots fly­ing 100ft. or more from the ground. He had found it difficult to watch the cricket because of the tremendous noise of the engines of planes. One plane seemed to be following the other when they were circling the ground, and they seemed to be flying at the same height. TOOK AEROPLANE NUMBERS The Rev. M. B. Innes, a housemaster, said the two aeroplanes circled the field at a reason­able height and then flew across the field very low several times. After describing the crash, he said he estimated the height of the aero-planes at about 30 or 40 feet on three or four occasions. They could have been hit by a cricket ball. He took the number of one aero­plane because he thought that such low flying was distracting and dangerous. Aeroplanes had come over at a. low height before that term. Questioned about low flying, Fr. Innes said that usually two aeroplanes did it. During last Easter term they dived low enough to constitute a danger. It happened at several matches, On Monday this week he saw an aeroplane come over, and be read the number and told the Abbot. Commander A.F. Black, in control of a Royal Navy air station, said that in excellent visibility Sub-Lieutenant J. B. Leeming and Sub-Lieutenant A. C. McCracken took two sea Hurricanes on exercises. Both exercises were individual attack and follow-my-Ieader, with the instructor, Leeming, carrying out steep turns, dives, and "zooms," and the pupil, McCracken (who was killed), attempting to keep on the leader's tail. They should not have flown below 2,000ft. Downside was just out­side the limited area permitted for the exercises. McCracken had eight months' experience of flying in Britain. Leeming, who had 500 hours' flying since 1941, was an experienced instructor. No technical defects had been found in the crashed plane. To have flown over the playing fieldsat less than 100ft. would have been a gross breach of regulations. Sub-Lieutenant J. B; Leeming said McCracken and he completed the exercises at between 4,000ft. and 2,000ft. After the exercises, they flew around the Downside area at between 500ft. and 1,000ft., but at no time below 500ft. As he had authorized himself to remain out an hour and a quarter he had to "find something else to do.” McCracken was still following him, but the exercise of follow-my-leader had ceased. As an instructor, he considered low-flying practice part of McCracken's training. He had a very distant cousin at the school but was not coming in to that neighbourhood because of him. He flew over the cricket field three times. McCracken was flying also at 500ft., which was a safe height. The Coroner told the jury they had to decide whether Leaming could be held respon­sible for the actions of McCracken.
