The Blackburn Botha Disaster Memorial

Image: © Eric Jones Taken: 14 Nov 2008

This stone, erected on the lawn of the Rhosneigr Fire Station in 1991, is a memorial to the 11 men - locals, Royal Artillery and RAF Valley personnel - who, together with the 3 aircraft crew, were lost when, in a fierce gale on the 28th August 1941, Blackburn Botha L6417 of Air Observer School, West Freugh, (near Stranraer), crashed into the sea just short of the beach at Rhosneigr. Three boats were launched each of which capsized drowning its crew. George Cledwyn Arthur (29) was the village bobby and E Jones,(whose son Arthur was the moving spirit behind setting up the memorial), was a Coastguard. The five RA men, a subaltern, a warrant officer and three gunners are buried side by side at Llanfaelog New Cemetery. Two boys also put to sea in a dinghy in an effort to reach the aircraft, but were unable to save the crew who were swept away by the waves. Their dinghy overturned but they were fortunate in being rescued by people from the beach. The two lads, Derrick Baynham and John Wood, were awarded the George Medal. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1519018/Brigadier-Derrick-Baynham.html The under-powered Blackburn Botha Mk1, a number of which were lost in Snowdonia, was little more than a "flying coffin". The following link is to an interesting item by the daughter of LAC Leslie Arthur Ford, one of the RAF Valley men drowned in the rescue attempt. http://www.bbc.co.uk/ww2peopleswar/stories/94/a7286394.shtml Image Image

Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0