Plaque R.A.F. Bomber crew 1940 St. Mary’s Lighthouse

St. Mary’s Lighthouse, St. Mary’s Island. Whtley Bay, North TYneside.NE26 4RS. NZ 35257 75396.

1939-45

Unveiled 12th April 2008 by Group Captain W.J. Millington, Commanding Officer, R.A.F. Boulmer.
Dedicated by Canon Robin Greenwood, St. Mary’s Parish Church, Monkseaton.

Brass

ACIA (Air Crash Investigation and Archaeology Group);
Sharpe Family;
Friends of St. Mary’s Lighthouse.

Public subscription.

In memory of
(Names)
of Bomber Command
83 Squadron, R.A.F. Scampton, Lincolnshire
who gave their lives at Old Hartley, St. Mary’s Island
Northumberland
on the morning of 7 April 1940
whilst flying Handley Page Hampden Mk 1 L4054 .
“…wherever and for as long as freedom
flourishes on the earth, the men and women
who possess it will thank them and will say they
did not die in vain.”
For your tomorrow
Presented by
Air Crash Investigation and Archaeology Group
The Friends of St. Mary’s Island
The Family of Denis William Sharpe

Plaque,  12 inches high x 8 inches wide (304mm x 204mm), set in a wood frame.

At centre top is the badge of R.A.F. Bomber Command 83 Squadron.

Lettering is in lower case sans serif lettering with the quotation in italics.

1. In attendance at the service were family members of Denis William Sharpe, whose body was never recovered. He was the wireless operator, and had stayed in the plane after the other baled out. It is unknown whether he was dead or injured, but he was lost in the explosion.

2. The Handley Page Bomber, believed to be still carrying her bomb-load, was returning after a raid in Germany in 1940. She circled St. Mary’s Lighthouse for 90 minutes signaling SOS before crashing and exploding.

3. The story was followed up by Russ Gray, a member of the Air Crash Investigation and Archaeology Group. Very careful studies of RAF records and witnesses led him to a field where the remains of the aircraft were located.

4. Other crew members were Australian pilot Wilfred Roberts; navigator Keith Brooke-Taylor from New Zealand, Observer Andrew McNicol from Barrow.

5. Bomber Command Losses states that the aircraft, a Hampden I L4054 Ol- which was on patrol, having taken off from Scampton at 1915, ran out of fuel and abandoned the flight at 04.15 over Whitley Bay and crashed into the sea in the vicinity of St. Mary’s Lighthouse, and that none survived.

ACIA website

Photos: Russell Gray

Evening Chronicle
26/03/2008 reports story of plane crash and proposed memorial.

Air Crash Northumberland Gray, Corbett, Shipley & Anderson, 2008, Countryside Books, ISBN 978 1 84674 112 8

Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1939-1940; W.R. Chorley; 1992; Midland Counties Publication; ISBN 0 904597 85 7

Source of quotation:
“Wherever and as long as freedom flourishes . . .” From a speech by Queen Elizabeth II when unveiling the memorial to the RAF at Runnymede on 17th October 1953.
“For your tomorrow” Quoted from the inscription on the memorial at Kohima but based on Simonides.

If you are researching this memorial please contact 2014@newmp.org.uk