Hawker Hart K4931 of No.5 Flying Training School, RAF, crashed on Esclusham Mountain near Wrexham on the 12th February 1937

The pilot was carrying out a day cross country exercise from RAF Sealand near Chester, the weather was reported to be low cloud with frequent snow showers. When A/P/O Simpson failed to return he was reported overdue and a search for him and his aircraft began. The wreckage of his aircraft was discovered the following morning by a shepherd working on the moorland. He had spotted it from some distance away through binoculars.

The aircraft had dived into the moorland at fairly high speed with much of the forward end of the aircraft embedded in the ground.

The pilot had only been a member of the Royal Air Force since the autumn of 1936 (he received his commission to the rank of Acting Pilot Officer on the 12th October), he had served with the Territorial Army before this point at the rank of Lieutenant in the 5th King's Own Royal (Lancaster) Regiment.

The site is currently marked by a small cross of stones, at the time of our visit to the site it had been recently excavated.

Above is a second photograph of the site with the jumbled sods of grass and earth placed back onto the excavated hole.

There were only a couple of tiny fragments of metal in among this.

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