A/Cdre David John Waghorn

[Andy Fletcher]

A/Cdre David John Waghorn was killed in a flying accident on 01 Apr 45. Can anyone confirm the location of the accident and/or possibly provide a copy of the death certificate.

Geneology is out side my normal area of research, which is WWII aviation, so I would be grateful for any help.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

[peterd]

this looks like him

Deaths Jun 1945
Waghorn David J 37 Salisbury 5a 190


poss salisbury plians where the acciedent happend you could send for his death cert it would give you more info
or maybe the corner report is still around ?

[MarkCDodd]

The obituary in The Times does not mentionw here he crashed.

Interesting he flew the first Liberator from the US to England.

[gardener]

Hi
It says on here that he crashed on Boscombe Down

http://www.rafweb.org/Biographies/Waghorn.htm

[Andy Fletcher]

this looks like him

Deaths Jun 1945
Waghorn David J 37 Salisbury 5a 190


poss salisbury plians where the acciedent happend you could send for his death cert it would give you more info
or maybe the corner report is still around ?

Hello Petard,

Many thanks for the info. The RAF Benson war diary, where Waghorn was based, states that he crashed at Boscombe Down, but there are a number of eye witness accounts that say the accident occured at Benson. Boscombe Down is just outside of Salisbury so the fact his death is registered there certainly points to Boscombe as the location of his death. His body certainly ended up at RAF Benson as his funeral procession left there for Oxford Crematorium on 05 Apr 45.

Thanks for your help.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

[Andy Fletcher]

Mark,

Could you post the link to The Times obit please. I wasn't aware he flew the first Liberator to the UK so would like to find out more.


Gardner,

Thanks for the link. It gives the same location as the Benson war diary (see my answer to Petard above).

Cheers

Andy Fletcher

[SRD]

I wonder if it was because of the secrecy surrounding Boscombe Down. If he had been involved in testing new aircraft or weaponry they may have wished to hide the fact that he'd been working there.

[MarkCDodd]

You will have to find a resource that has The Times Digital online.

I go through my State Library or National Library.

Most large librarys will have it.

Send me a PM with you e-mail address and I will send you the obit.

His brother also died in a place accident...in 1931.

[Andy Fletcher]

I wonder if it was because of the secrecy surrounding Boscombe Down. If he had been involved in testing new aircraft or weaponry they may have wished to hide the fact that he'd been working there.

One of the units that was part of his command, the PRDU based at Benson, was responsible for testing modifications etc for photo recce aircraft and the PRDU probably liased quite closely with the A&AEE at Boscombe. In fact Waghorn's predecessor as AOC 106 (PR) Group, John Boothman, was the Commandant A&AEE at the time of Waghorn's death.

It is the official documents that say or point to the death taking place at Boscombe, the eye witness accounts say it happened at Benson.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

[Andy Fletcher]

Hi Mark,

Many thanks for the offer. PM sent.

Cheers

Andy Fletcher

[SRD]

I wonder if it was because of the secrecy surrounding Boscombe Down. If he had been involved in testing new aircraft or weaponry they may have wished to hide the fact that he'd been working there.

One of the units that was part of his command, the PRDU based at Benson, was responsible for testing modifications etc for photo recce aircraft and the PRDU probably liased quite closely with the A&AEE at Boscombe. In fact Waghorn's predecessor as AOC 106 (PR) Group, John Boothman, was the Commandant A&AEE at the time of Waghorn's death.

It is the official documents that say or point to the death taking place at Boscombe, the eye witness accounts say it happened at Benson.

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

That's interesting; I wonder if he wasn't supposed to be at Benson (popped home for the weekend maybe, April 1st 1945 was a Sunday I think). But then it would have meant a lot of covering up regarding the Salisbury/Boscombe entries. And what happened to the aircraft itself?
There again, it was April 1st.