Liverpool & South West Lancashire FHS - Forum

Hi All

Charles William Wooding 8th November 1924 - 16th August 1949. This gentleman is my 1st cousin ( belonging to the Prendergast/Davies clan)

I am trying to find out how he died. Below are some details I found and also a piece that around that time this particular plane was going through a series of tests. I found it on HistoryHubulster.

It's now got my attention and was wondering how I'd go about finding out what happened.

16th August 1949, Fairey Firefly VT496, 719 Sqn (Eglinton).
Aircraft crashed NW of Ballymena killing pilot Lt CW Wooding, RN, and observer, Lt PRP Dunn.

WOODING, Charles W, Lieutenant (P), FAA, 719 Squadron, Gannet, 16 August 1949, air crash, killed at sea.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Sue x

Sue,

If you are not aware, FAA is the Fleet Air Arm. Apparently records after 1925 are in the hands of the Ministry of Defence, I imagine you will have to apply to,

https://www.gov.uk/get-copy-military-se ... s/overview

Fleet Air Arm museum might help with the crash details, etc.

Hi Bert

Yes aware of connection........I too was in Fleet Air Arm, Yeovilton. I was With Radar. Just got me curious when I read of the alterations to the aircraft. Will have a look at site.

Many thanks, and I hope your well.

Sue x

Hi All

Going over my tree with a bit more experience........still learning though.
I thought you might like update of my cousin Charles.

I can’t upload pictures of the newspaper cuttings but this is what I found.

He’d been in the RN for 7 years.....must have joined as a young boy.

He and his Navigator were flying from Ballymena to Portsmouth in a Firefly. Charles had been a Guard of Honour at Peters wedding the month before to Jean Kathleen a local girl.

They decided to fly around her house.....maybe married quarters at RNAS, as other personnel saw them. After many acrobatics they rose and then dived turning as they went. The plane wa flying upside down around Peters house when the engine could not be heard and it plummeted to the ground killing livestock in the adjacent field......his wife fully award of what had happen.

The Coroner’s report says they both died of “misadventure “

Peter Richard Pridmore Dunn was the only child and was buried with full military honours in Ballymena Northern Ireland.

On the 19th August 1949 Charles’s body was to be flown home for internment (once again Liverpool Echo)

What I can’t find is his grave.....would he have been give the same military honour.....or because of the nature of the accident and him the pilot would he not ae had those honours.

Hi All

Going over my tree with a bit more experience........still learning though.
I thought you might like update of my cousin Charles.

I can’t upload pictures of the newspaper cuttings but this is what I found.

He’d been in the RN for 7 years.....must have joined as a young boy.

He and his Navigator were flying from Ballymena to Portsmouth in a Firefly. Charles had been a Guard of Honour at Peters wedding the month before to Jean Kathleen a local girl.

They decided to fly around her house.....maybe married quarters at RNAS, as other personnel saw them. After many acrobatics they rose and then dived turning as they went. The plane wa flying upside down around Peters house when the engine could not be heard and it plummeted to the ground killing livestock in the adjacent field......his wife fully award of what had happen.

The Coroner’s report says they both died of “misadventure “

Peter Richard Pridmore Dunn was the only child and was buried in Ballymena with full military honours in Ballymena Northern Ireland.

On the 19th August 1949 Charles’s body was to be flown home for internment (once again Liverpool Echo)

What I can’t find is his grave.....would he have been give the same military honour.....or because of the nature of the accident and him the pilot would he not ae had those honours.

The Echo report of Wooding's accident gives his parents' address as Smithdown Road, but there is nothing relevant in the website for Toxteth Park Cemetery Inscriptions. There seems to be only that single report in the Echo.
It may need a search of cemetery registers, or a churchyard burial would possible. What religion were they?
D

Hi Daggers

Thanks Daggers.

Mixed bunch really. Mother catholic, but brought up by grandmother who wa Church of England.

In 1945 they were living at 4 Cranborne Road, Wavertree. I believe they had a Chandlers shop but don’t know the address of it.


Sue