Bristol Beaufort Mk.I N1180 of No.1 TTU, crashed on Tor Mhor, Mull of Kintyre, on the 2nd September 1942 while on a training flight from Turnberry

Bristol Beaufort at the Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon

 

Leonard Percy Booker Pilot Officer RNZAF Pilot Killed
Albert Augustine Haydon Sergeant RNZAF Pilot Killed
Francis John Bliss Griffin Sergeant Observer Killed
Tom Henry Grasswick Sergeant RCAF Wireless Operator / Air Gunner Killed

 

While normally stationed at RAF Abbotsinch (now Glasgow Airport), the crew had been detatched to operate from RAF Turnberry on the Ayrshire coast. They had been briefed for a night navigation training flight, they had been given a weather forecast for a general deterioration in conditions along their planned route. However during the flight the change in the weather occurred more rapidly than forecast with a strong westerly wind developing. The aircraft had drifted a short way from the crew’s intended track when it struck Tor Mhor, 1/2 a mile SE of the Mull of Kintyre lighthouse, where it broke up and caught fire.

Crash site of Bristol Beaufort N1180 on Tor Mhor, Mull of Kintyre
Above is the crash site of N1180 on Tor Mhor, the road to the Mull lighthouse can be seen, the memorial to the 29 victims of ZD576 is near the summit of the hill in the background.

Two of the aircraft’s crew were buried at Kilkerran Cemetery in Campbeltown, they were P/O Booker and Sgt Grasswick.

Grave of Pilot Officer Leonard Percy Booker at Kilkerran Cemetery, Campbeltown
Pilot Officer Leonard Booker’s grave at Campbeltown
Grave of Sergeant Tom Henry Grasswick at Kilkerran Cemetery, Campbeltown
Sergeant Tom Grasswick’s grave at Campbeltown
Grave of Albert Augustine Sergeant Haydon at Brookwood Military Cemetery
Sergeant Albert Haydon is buried at Brookwood Military Cemetery in Surrey.
Grave of Sergeant Francis John Bliss Griffin at Harrow Pinner New Cemetery, London
Sergeant Francis Griffin is buried at Harrow Pinner New Cemetery, London
Grave of Sergeant Francis John Bliss Griffin at Harrow Pinner New Cemetery, London
A second photograph of Francis Griffin’s grave at Harrow.