Rev Lachlan Macleod, St Columba's, Stornoway, visited St Kilda by Admiralty trawler last week to conduct a funeral service for ten airmen who lost their lives when a Sunderland flying boat crashed on St Kilda. The bodies were found at the summit of the second highest hill in the island, scattered round the wreckage of the flying boat. Bearer parties of RAF personnel who had gone to St Kilda for the purpose carried the bodies to the little jetty, whence they were transferred to the trawler and buried at sea. Several of the crew of the crashed plane were New Zealanders. The rest were English. [article ends]
There were three planes that crashed on St Kilda during the Second World War, and those lost are remembered on a memorial on St Kilda. The names of the crew of Sunderland ML858 which crashed on Gleann Mhor on 8 June 1944 were:
WO Cecil Osborne RNZAF
F/O Richard Dillicar Ferguson RNZAF
F/O William Alexander Thompson RNZAF
W/O John Raymond Lloyd RNZAF
F/Sgt Bryan Bowker RAF
Sgt Roy Lewis RAFVR
Sgt James Scoular Thomson RAFVR
Sgt Francis Matthew Robertson RNZAF
Sgt David John Chubbin Roulston RNZAF
F/Sgt Oliver George Reed RNZAF
My Great Uncle (Francis Robertson) was aboard that Sunderland. All his other brothers, including my grandfather, fought and survived the war. I've been trying to find out more about Uncle Frank and the crash, which led me here. Thanks for the info!
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