General Chat

This is just a stab in the dark. My father in law was in RAF during war and spent some time based in Cornwall, with family. My husband who is now 80 can vividly remember a plane crashing into a cottage at Trevellas and Wikipedia states that a woman was injured and her 4 year old son killed. He was buried in St Agnes cemetery. We are trying to find anyone with memories of this and who maybe knew the family who lived in the cottage. Here's hoping!

Here is the record...

UK, WWII Civilian Deaths, 1939-1945


Name: Barry Walker
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1939
Death Date: 13 Sep 1943
Death Place: Truro, Cornwall, England
Age at Death: 4
Father: Sydney Walker
Mother: A M Walker


Son of Sgt. Sydney Walker RAF and A M Walker of Godolphin House, Portloe. at Shute Row, Trevellas, St Agnes.



Andy

This might be his birth

Births Jun 1939 (>99%)
Walker Barry Senior Holderness 9d 125

and parents marriage

Surname First name(s) Spouse District Vol Page
Marriages Mar 1934 (>99%)
Senior Annie M Walker Sculcoates 9d 370
Walker Sydney Senior Sculcoates 9d 370



so not a local family. there are several possible births for siblings of Barry.


Andy

Crash details:

https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=152271

Thank you Andy & Kense - this information gives me a good starting point. My husband was hoping someone else might have remembered the crash but I think that would be most unlikely now after 75 years! He also has another memory of a doodlebug over Reigate in 1944 but I'll put that on another post and see if I can get lucky again.

Diane

You could approach a local newspaper to the crash site to see if they’d run an article, ditto one serving Hull.

There could be a local Truro group on FB. How about AgeUk centres in both places? Anyone who remember the family or the event are likely to be in their 80s.

Diane

Where does father-in-law think that doodlebug landed ? !!

We were bombed out by one (and a neighbour killed) in 1944 between Reigate and Coulsdon.

The CWGC details for the pilot of the plane:


Flight SergeantNOLAN, MERVYN FRANCIS

Service Number 414505

Died 13/09/1943

Aged 24

Royal Australian Air Force

Son of George Saunders Nolan and Hannah Nolan, of Bundaberg, Queensland, Australia.

Buried at ILLOGAN (ST. ILLOGAN) CHURCHYARD

Location: Cornwall, United Kingdom
Number of casualties: 52

Cemetery/memorial reference: Row 2. Grave 20.

A little detail on Ft Sgt M F Nolan...
On 13th September 1943 at 1500hrs Spitfire EE727 of 453 (RAAF) Sqn Perranporth crashed at Trevellas, St Agnes, 2 miles south of Perranporth. The pilot attempted an overshoot on the airfield but apparently too late, hit a telephone pole and wires, stalled and crashed on to a cottage. The cottage was virtually destroyed and the wreckage set on fire, which set off the ammunition which hampered the rescue work. Mrs A Walker, the wife of an airman on the base, was seriously injured. Her son Barry Walker, aged 4, was killed and is buried in St Agnes Cemetery.

Two items from BBC Peoples War have relevance to this thread. The first mentions the plane crash.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/27/a3937827.shtml


The second contains a memory of a doodlebug over Reigate. I would imagine that here were many in the Reigate area so it would be hard to pinpoint it as the one your husband saw.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/19/a2786619.shtml

Thank you everyone for all this very interesting info most of which I have printed off.
Elizabeth, it was my husband who saw the doodlebug - he was staying in Reigate with his grandparents who lived on New North Road. He used to walk across this road and through a gap to get on to the recreation ground. He was playing there one day when a doodlebug came over from the direction of Sandcross Lane to Clayhall Lane. It cut out and crashed on some cottages "in the middle of nowhere". Looking at a map of Reigate, Coulsdon might have been a bit further away from there.

Diane, I can't help at all, but I have found your post very interesting, not least because after the war my mother, stepfather and I used to holiday at St Agnes from about 1948-1951. I can't remember the name of the small hotel, but the landlady was a Mrs Twiss. My grandparents had been there the previous year and came home with an 'in house' puppy!!! St Agnes has always stood out in my mind all these years as some of the happiest holidays we had. Both my father and stepfather were in the RAF during the war one survived, one didn't.

Thanks Magpie. I haven't posted on here for a few years now but have dipped in and out to see what's going on and have noticed how the number of posts has dwindled considerably since I joined. I have only posted now I suppose because my husband regularly talks about his memories of the war and how happy he was in Cornwall and Reigate. We spent our honeymoon near Hayle nearly 40 years ago now and visited St Agnes, Trevellas and Perranporth and he pointed out all the places he had been during that time. We have always meant to go back again but I don't think I could face the long trek and we have our own "in house puppy", but you never know!

OH and I lived in Cornwall for 18 months in 1964 Diane when we were first married and he was in the Fleet Air Arm. We lived near Penzance and our son was born at Hayle. We visited St Agnes many times, they were happy days!