Four airmen buried in Miltown Malbay, December 1941
Posted: Tue Nov 18, 2008 10:04 am
The Clare Library has just published two more sets of gravestone transcriptions in its series "Donated Material: Graveyard Inscriptions & Mortuary Cards" (see http://www.clarelibrary.ie/eolas/coclar ... graves.htm ). The new transcriptions are from the Miltown Malbay Church of Ireland graveyard (36 records donated by Colin & Maria Trickett, Cyprus) and the Feakle graveyard (1279 records donated by Tom McDowell, UK).
Among the Miltown Malbay transcriptions are four records of Royal Air Force aircrew who all died on 3rd December 1941. Three are named as
933498 Sergeant MWG FOX
Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 20
522263 Sergeant S J EPPS
Wireless Operator / Airgunner
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 25
904349 Ldg Aircraftman F W LEA
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 21
but one of the buried has no name, being listed as:
AN AIRMAN OF THE 1939-1945 WAR
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941
This suggested to me that these were not local boys who were brought back home for burial but the crew of an airplane, presumably on an Atlantic or transatlantic mission, which crashed in the vicinity. As service records were usually meticulously kept it is curious that one of the four could not be named.
A web search reveals that on December 3 1941 a Short Sunderland crashed at sea off Doonbeg, NR Carrowmore (see http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/crashes.htm ). A number of remains were washed ashore after this crash which may have been men from this aircraft. The pilot/crew were listed as:
F/Lt James Grant FLEMING DFC 40380 (Int) DIS
P/O Wilfred Sefton EMMET NZ401377 RNZAF +
Sgt Eric Willows JACKSON 999009 +
P/O Eric Gerald MARKER 101048 +
Sgt Sydney James EPPS 522263 +
Sgt Maurice Walter Gerald FOX 933498 +
Sgt James Cannell MASTERSON 911625 (Int)
LAC Frederick Walter LEA 904349 +
LAC Arthur DONCASTER 743595 +
LAC Andrew Patrick WALKER 972825 +
AC1 Albert Everall BENNETT 1081395 +
and the list states that "....Epps, Fox, Lea, Bennett and Doncaster were buried in Ireland.." (so Bennett and Doncaster were presumably buried elsewhere).
Does anyone in this forum know more of the event(s) which led to these four being buried in the Miltown Malbay Church of Ireland graveyard ? Does anyone know who the anonymous crew member might have been ?
Paddy
P.S. The cited website lists several other landings or crashes in Clare in WW2. For example, a Consolidated B-24D-95-CO Liberator crashed on the beach at Lahinch on July 10 1943 with the loss of 11 crew lives and a plaque in Lahinch commemorates this tragedy.
Among the Miltown Malbay transcriptions are four records of Royal Air Force aircrew who all died on 3rd December 1941. Three are named as
933498 Sergeant MWG FOX
Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 20
522263 Sergeant S J EPPS
Wireless Operator / Airgunner
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 25
904349 Ldg Aircraftman F W LEA
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941 aged 21
but one of the buried has no name, being listed as:
AN AIRMAN OF THE 1939-1945 WAR
Royal Air Force 3rd December 1941
This suggested to me that these were not local boys who were brought back home for burial but the crew of an airplane, presumably on an Atlantic or transatlantic mission, which crashed in the vicinity. As service records were usually meticulously kept it is curious that one of the four could not be named.
A web search reveals that on December 3 1941 a Short Sunderland crashed at sea off Doonbeg, NR Carrowmore (see http://www.csn.ul.ie/~dan/war/crashes.htm ). A number of remains were washed ashore after this crash which may have been men from this aircraft. The pilot/crew were listed as:
F/Lt James Grant FLEMING DFC 40380 (Int) DIS
P/O Wilfred Sefton EMMET NZ401377 RNZAF +
Sgt Eric Willows JACKSON 999009 +
P/O Eric Gerald MARKER 101048 +
Sgt Sydney James EPPS 522263 +
Sgt Maurice Walter Gerald FOX 933498 +
Sgt James Cannell MASTERSON 911625 (Int)
LAC Frederick Walter LEA 904349 +
LAC Arthur DONCASTER 743595 +
LAC Andrew Patrick WALKER 972825 +
AC1 Albert Everall BENNETT 1081395 +
and the list states that "....Epps, Fox, Lea, Bennett and Doncaster were buried in Ireland.." (so Bennett and Doncaster were presumably buried elsewhere).
Does anyone in this forum know more of the event(s) which led to these four being buried in the Miltown Malbay Church of Ireland graveyard ? Does anyone know who the anonymous crew member might have been ?
Paddy
P.S. The cited website lists several other landings or crashes in Clare in WW2. For example, a Consolidated B-24D-95-CO Liberator crashed on the beach at Lahinch on July 10 1943 with the loss of 11 crew lives and a plaque in Lahinch commemorates this tragedy.