Miles Magister P2427 of No.5 Elementary Flying Training School crashed during a forced landing near Leek on the 26th November 1940

 

Thomas Gordon Brocklebank

Leading Aircraftman

Pilot

Survived

 

Thomas Brocklebank was only a few hours into his elementary flying training and was on an early solo flight in the local area around Meir when he became lost in the Leek area. He decided to carry out a forced landing but the field he selected at Longsdon Grange had a ridge across it which he had not seen from the air and on landing the aircraft ran over that ridge losing its undercarriage.

At some point after the end of 1940, but before December 1941 LAC Brocklebank would leave the RAF and transfer to the Royal Navy continuing with flying and receiving a commission. By the end of war he was serving as a Lieutenant. His father had been a Major with the Army during the Boer War and First World War. His brother also served with the Royal Navy but died in 1945 while serving on the Cruiser HMS Bermuda.