Photo : Brian Chandler
In St.John's Churchyard, Seaton Hirst is a family headstone which reads:
In loving memory of
Thomas
beloved husband of
Elizabeth Patterson
died 22nd Dec. 1941 aged 56 years
Also of John Anderson Patterson
killed in action 23rd Oct. 1941 aged 42 years.
Also the above Elizabeth
died 25th June ?1967.
Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Sergeant Patterson was killed when Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V P4934 MH-A of 51 Squadron was lost on a mission to Cologne. The Whitley took off from R.A.F. Dishforth at 18.58 on February 26th 1941, but suffered engine and radio problems. It encountered heavy snow, and the pilot ordered the crew to bale out. Unfortunately only two of the crew managed to do so before the Whitley crashed into the North Sea off the Durham coast at 05.00 on the following day, killing the three remaining crew.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1941; W.R. Chorley; 1993; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 87 3, page 24
His D.F.M. was gazetted posthumously on October 31st 1941, and was reported in the Derbyshire Times on 14/11/1941:
D.F.M. AWARD
For Staveley Airman Presumed Dead
Mrs. Kitty Patterson, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. D. P. Moncaster, of 11, Ringwood Avenue, Staveley, was officially notified on Thursday week of the award of the Distinguished Flying Medal to her husband, Sergt. J. A. Patterson, who was reported missing on an operational flight last February, and presumed dead. The award is for gallantry and devotion to duty, and Mrs. Patterson with her father, will shortly be visiting London to receive the decoration. Aged 22, Sergt. Patterson was a native of Ashington, Northumberland, which was also his wife’s birthplace, her parents moving to Creswell in 1927 and to Staveley five years later. Sergt. Patterson was a wireless operator, and was married on Dec. 16th 1940, ten weeks before being reported missing.
His award was for his part in Operation Colossus earlier in February 1941.
There is a discrepancy in the dates of death for this man.
John Anderson Patterson is remembered in Ashington on A17.01 (A17.27) and A17.43
