1232301 John Orrell

Family details:
Son of Thomas and Mary Orrell, of Upholland, Lancashire, England.

Census details:
1939 Register. Unfortunately John and two other members of the household are redacted. Father Thomas Orrell born 08/09/1891 a Wholesale Grocers Secretary, mother Mary Orrell born 05/11/1891 an Unpaid Domestic and sister Anne Orrell born 22/06/1931 At School are living at 45 Parliament Street, Upholland.

Notes:
[url=lmem.php?lmem=26]Remembered on the West Park Old Boys Memorial[/url]

Crash of Handley Page Hampden AJ988 Crashed into sea off Patricia Bay, BC, Canada. John was trained as a RAFVR pilot and came to Canada to No. 32 OTU at Patricia Bay, British Columbia to complete his training. He died there in a flying accident on 25 October 1942. On 25 October 1942, John Orrell was detailed to practice instrument flying cross country. He took off at 4:15 pm in Handley Page Hampden AJ988 with a safety pilot, Sergeant Henry James Thorn. The route they were to take was base to north of Galiano Island, to north of Saturna Island, to Elk Lake, to Duncan and back to base. They were to return to base if the weather deteriorated and were not authorized for any low flying. At around 5:15 pm the aircraft crashed into the sea with only a civilian fisherman as witness; Mr. C.L. Musclow. The Court of Inquiry believed him to be an intelligent and competent witness. The witness was fishing just west of Mandarte Island when he saw a twin engine aeroplane flying towards him, quite low, over the trees at the south east end of Sidney Island. The aeroplane appeared to lose height and strike the water about a mile from where he was fishing. It became airborne again and began to climb. At about 25 ft. the witness reported there seemed to be an explosion in the sea beneath the aircraft, but the aircraft continued climbing to about 100 ft., passed over his boat, turned, came back and crashed into the water about 60 feet from his boat. Both engines sounded quite normal but he saw white smoke and flames coming from the starboard engine. After it entered the water the aircraft floated momentarily then exploded into quite small pieces. When the aircraft passed over him he could see no sign of the pilot. There were no bombs or torpedoes on the aircraft that could have caused the first reported explosion and the aircraft had been entirely serviceable when it was flown by another pilot immediately before this flight. The accident was deemed to have been caused by disobedience of the order against flying low and an error of judgment resulting in either a wing or a propeller blade entering the water, and the subsequent crash. A search party found a large oil slick off Mandarte Island with no sign of any survivors. No recovery efforts were made due to the total destruction caused by the explosion. [pic]jeff/Orrel_Ottawa_War_Memorial.jpg[/pic] [pic]jeff/Orrell_St.James_family_headstone.png[/pic] [url=jeff/Orrell-J_Victoria_Colonist_Newspaper.pdf]Victoria_Colonist_Newspaper[/url]