Family of the Crew of Sunderland DW110

[Bonnie66]

Hi 
I am the cousin of one of the pilots of DW110 F/O M V Wareing.
I am looking for any family members of the crew of Sunderland DW110 which crashed in the BlueStack Mountains in Ireland in 1944. I am particularly looking for the following: Flt Lt Howard Charles Armstrong, from Carlisle, Flt Lt Maurice Leonard Gillingham from Surbiton in Surrey, Sgt Cyril Robinson Greenwood form Salford, Flg Sgt John Ernest Parsons from Keynsham, Flt engineer Frederick Tom Copp of Starcross Devon and  Flght Lt (Nav) Joseph George Trull of Uley. We know where they are all buried etc.
 I know most of their forces history etc and as the 65th Anniversary approaches I just thought it would be nice if some of us could contact each other and the people of the BLueStack Mountains who look after the memorial site. I have all the info from Dennis Burke and others about the crash, now we are trying to trace the families.  Any ideas would be appreciated.

[Flakdodger]

Hi Bonnie,
interesting project and good luck with it.
You might consider contacting the local newspaper of the town you have picked from CWGC.
Another way is the leg work of establishing family units and trying to trace those families.
Two valuable tools are FreeBMD and www.192.com
On FreeBMD, using Joseph Tull as an example, you can see his birth including mother's maiden name - track back to parents marriage and working forward again, list any siblings - in this case a brother Herbert (you may have noted from CWGC that their Father died in 1918).
From there you are left with attempting to trace Herbert's family. GRO records are now on-line at various commercial sites. If you can bridge the next couple of generations, then 192.com could be the finishing touch.
Do PM me and let me know how you get on. These things take time!
Good hunting
Dave

[Flakdodger]

Apologies, Tull should be Trull. Duff spellchecker and Mark I eyeball!

[Bonnie66]

Thanks for that info Dave,  I have been in contact with the Newspaper in Canada where one of the crew came from and they are most helpful and are doing an article on DW110, and suprise suprise today I got an answer through Ancestry site of the family of Trull - and they live now in Ireland - they had no idea about the site and are now going to make a pilgramige to it in the future.  So two down only 8 more to go. Gillingham is the hardest - I cant find him on BMD or his family or even on Census, Electroral roles or anything.....it is as if they never existed, we have tried putting an advert in the local paper that has had no response, I have also searched here on the board for "Gillinghams" and sent the info to a couple of people - but will have to wait and see. They never even claimed his body which is strange too, as most of the others went "home" except the Canadian which is not unusual.

Will let you know how I get on - thanks for your interest in my/our project

Dyan

[Bonnie66]

Just to give you an update we have now found all but three families.  We are still looking for Sgt John Ernest Parsons, 1315937, Sgt C S Hobbs (we think its Clifford could be Charles) 1644857 - he survived but was invalided out of the RAF, and the Captain F/Lt Howard Charles Sheffield Armstrong DFC  - we have found his grave and got a photo we now have a possible lead on him - still working on it. We have a website now www.freewebs.com/dw110.  The memorial service will be in May 2009 (weather too bad in Jan for us "olds" to climb up the mountain.

Dyan

[Dennis Burke]

Update!

J E Parson's widow's daughter contacted us some years back so we got a series of photos and found an obituary to tell his story.

H C S Armstrong, he has a thread else where on the forum, no surviving relatives that I can see.

leaving only, Charles Stanley HOBBS

His name was confirmed from RAF AIR78 indexes, next of kin determined from next of kin address.

So far I have determined:

Sgt Charles Stanley HOBBS 1644857
Charles Hobbs was the one crew that little was learned about.  His service number 1644857, indicated he enlisted sometime on or after October 1941 at Cardington (Bedfordhire).

He was listed on the crew list as FME/AG, a flight mechanic engines/air gunner.  His next of kin is listed as Ethel Hobbs at an address in Islington.  This address reveals Stanley was still resident there at the time of of the 1939 register and working as a General metal worker.  He and Ethel had married in 1934 in the Finbury district, their marriage certificate revealing his parents were Florence and Charles Alfred Hobbs.  His father is listed as a silversmith in 1934 and at the time of his death, his probate records listed Charles Stanley Hobbs, silversmith as his next of next of kin.

Charles is described as seriously injured in crash in casualty notices but survived and at this time there is no indication that he ever returned to active duty.
He passed away in Islington, London in late 1990.