Hampden P4389 near Finningley.
On 18th June 1941 this 50 Squadron aircraft was taking off from Finningley airfield so that an airtest could be carried out when it stalled at low height, it dived
into the ground one field away from the airfield boundary near Gatewood Farm at 18.50hrs. The aircraft was destroyed and all on board were sadly killed. The last three named below were ground crew probably going along for a ride which appears to have been reasonably common practice at the time.
Pilot - Sgt Lawrence Rex Hinde RAFVR (926469), aged 20, of Lymington. Buried Hatfield Woodhouse Cemetery, South Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Alexander Campbell RAFVR (974217), aged 19, of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Buried Hatfield Woodhouse Cemetery, South Yorkshire.
Ground Crew / Passenger - Cpl Morris Ernest Balkin RAFVR (969301), aged ? Of Langside, Glasgow. Buried Glasgow (Glenduffhill) Jewish Cemetery.
Ground Crew / Passenger - LAC Harry Barton RAFVR (1250704), aged 26, of Bacup. Buried Fairwell Cemetery, Bacup, Lancashire.
Ground Crew / Passenger - AC2 Percy Charles Kemp RAFVR (114845), aged 26, of Worthing. Buried Worthing (Durrington) Cemetery, Sussex.
Gravestones of three of those killed in this incident. Sgt Hinde's grave in Hatfield Woodhouse Cemetery, his brother Michael Dounis Hinde was killed on
active service in the Merchant Navy in 1942 and was also aged twenty. He was a radio officer on board the Caledonian Monarch that was sunk by the German
U-Boat "U-588" on 14th January 1942 with the loss of all 46 crew. Also shown are Sgt Campbell's grave in Hatfield Woodhouse Cemetery and AC2 Kemp's in
Durrington Cemetery, Worthing (I thank Nikki Sheeran for this photograph).
Cpl Balkin's gravestone had sadly fallen over when it was photographed in July 2012 and was very badly damaged. It may well have been re-erected since this webpage was created.
Hampden P4389 was built to contract 773239/38 by Handley Page Ltd. at Radlett and was allotted to 8 MU at Little Rissington on 1st June 1940, six days later it
was delivered to the care of 8 MU at Little Rissington. On 24th June 1940 it was taken on charge by 50 Squadron at Waddington, on 10th July 1940 it moved with the
unit to Lindholme. On 16th May 1941 it was flown to SAS (Service Aircraft Section) at English Electric Ltd. at Samlesbury presumably for a service of some kind but this only
took four days as on 20th May 1941 it returned to 50 Squadron at Lindholme. On 18th June 1941 it was destroyed with Cat.E2/FA damage recorded in the crash detailed
above with a pretty impressive total flying time of 510.40hrs. The aircraft was struck off charge on 25th June 1941.