大象传媒

In September 1939 my late engineer husband, Stanley, and I, with our baby daughter Anne, were living in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, in the house in which I still reside. Stanley carried out his engineering practice in the adjacent workshop, my husband being disabled by having contracted polio as a child. However, very soon after the outbreak of hostilities, he was professionally engaged by the War Office for his engineering expertise.

I was often dungaree-clad and was able to assist Stanley in some workshop procedures, but using the secretarial skills gained from my pre-marital employment in the offices of Stanton Ironworks, I primarily served as his administrative partner. I remember that, among other items, components for the Lancaster bombers and cleats for the Bailey Bridge were in production at this address at different times.

The terms of Stanley鈥檚 employment included a special allowance of rationed petrol for his official duties. One Sunday, 12th July 1942, as a short break from our working week, Stanley drove the three of us to a farm owned by one of his relatives a few miles to the west. There we relaxed in one of its fields and I remember Stanley lying on his back and looking up into the sky whilst I played nearby with Anne, who was then aged 3.

Suddenly Stanley exclaimed 鈥淟ook at that plane, it鈥檚 flying very high!鈥� and then, almost immediately, 鈥淥h, it鈥檚 coming down!鈥� Indeed the aircraft was descending, and rapidly, rolling over and over like a barrel, and it was, seemingly, beginning to disintegrate as bits of it started falling to the ground.

I could think only of Anne and our safety, and I picked her up and made for the nearest edge of the field and lay with her in the hedge bottom until the crisis had passed.

We subsequently learned that the wreckage from the plane 鈥� a Wellington 鈥� had fallen over a wide area of the valley and that its main section had crashed at the village of Stanley; there were no survivors.

Eventually it was revealed that the aircraft had been carrying out high altitude tests and that a civilian test observer had been on board.

There is a sequel: on Sunday 11th July 2004 the sad event was commemorated when a surviving Lancaster flew the length of the valley as a mark of respect for the personnel lost over sixty years previously. On the same day a stone memorial was unveiled in Stanley churchyard as a lasting tribute to the crew of Wellington MkVI W575 who tragically lost heir lives that day in the Quarry Farm area of the parish.

Squadron Leader Cyril Lancelot Fellows Colmore, RAF
Flight Officer Kenneth Radford, RAFVR
Flight Sergeant Ronald P Gillott, RAF
Flight Sergeant Arthur J Smith DFM, RAF
Mr Clifford V Abbott, Civilian Test Observer.

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