de Havilland Dragonfly G-AEHC crashed on Darnaw in the Galloway hills near Newton Stewart on the 2nd February 1937

 

Leslie T. Jackson	Mr	Pilot	Killed
Archibald Francis Phillpot	Mr	Wireless Operator	Killed
Harold J. Pemberton	Major	Passenger (Journalist)	Killed
Reginald Charles Wesley	Mr	Passenger (Photographer)	Killed

 

The Croydon based aircraft was being used to prove a safe air route from Renfrew to Speke under the sponsorship (and ownership) of the Daily Express in an unofficial response to a report by the Maybury Air Committee into the opening up of routes linking various British cities. On the 2nd February 1937 the aircraft took off from Renfrew near Glasgow and headed south, nothing further was heard of it or its crew and when it failed to arrive at its destination a search was started.

Both RAF and civil aircraft carried out aerial searches of Southern Scotland and the Lake District while ground teams also searched the same areas. During the 3rd February an Anson, K6252 of No.269 Sqn from Abbotsinch, while searching in the area around Leadhills crashed in poor visibility, the crew being slightly injured

It was on the 4th that a shepherd who lived at Craigencallie discovered the burnt out wreckage of G-AEHC on Darnaw above Clatteringshaws reservoir, the aircraft had flown into the northern end of the hill in cloud. The site was guarded by local Police officers overnight until the bodies of the victims could be removed on the 5th to Newton Stewart where they were sent by train to London for burial.