Hosford, George Lynas Died

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Personal Information

Rank F/S
Forename(s) George Lynas
Surname Hosford
Gender M
Age 22
Decorations GM
Date of Death 30-01-1943
Next of Kin Son of Charles Maxwell Hosford and Eleanor Whitely Hosford, of Tottenham, Middlesex.
HOSFORD GL

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Vickers Wellington lll
Serial Number X3890
Markings

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country United Kingdom
Burial/Memorial Place Dundonald (St. Elizabeth) Church of Ireland Churchyard
Grave Reference Grave 827.

IBCC Memorial Information

Map
Directions to panel 51
HOSFORD GL

Location

Row -
Panel 51
Column -
Line -

Directions From the Chadwick Centre, take the central path towards The Spire.

Phase 1
Panel Number 51

Enlistment Information

Service Number 1283824
Service Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Group 92
Squadron 16 OTU
Trade Pilot
Country of Origin United Kingdom

Miscellaneous Information

His George Medal was awarded for his action on 25 June 1942, while he was on the strength of No. 104 Squadron. The citation from London Gazette, 29 December 1942, reads: "1283824 Sergeant George Lynas Hosford, Royal Air Force. Sergeant Hosford was in charge of a party which laid a flare path and loaded bombs on to a squadron of aircraft when they were operating from an airfield one night in June, 1942. The bombers had taken off from a nearby landing ground and, soon afterwards, enemy aircraft commenced to drop flares and bombs in the neighbourhood. The attack continued throughout the night. At 2300 hours our bombers commenced to arrive back, landing at the airfield, to be re-fuelled and reloaded for a second sortie. One of the aircraft, when taking off on its second operation, received a direct hit by an enemy bomb; a terrific explosion occurred and the aircraft burst into flames. Three members of the crew escaped through the pilot's escape hatch, whilst the rear gunner, who was badly injured but had managed to free himself from his turret, was assisted by Sergeant Hosford to get clear of the aircraft. The bombs on the aircraft began to explode but, despite the great danger, Sergeant Hosford returned to the blazing wreckage for the wireless operator, who was lying seriously injured close to it and dragged him to a nearby vehicle. The vehicle was badly damaged and, although Sergeant Hosford had not driven before, he succeeded in driving the vehicle away from the danger area. During the whole of this time enemy aircraft were overhead bombing and machine gunning the blazing aircraft. Afterwards to enable our bombers to land when returning from operations, Sergeant Hosford helped to re-lay a flare path, which he manned for the rest of the night. He displayed courage and devotion to duty of a very high standard and undoubtedly saved two lives".

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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Fellow Servicemen

Please note that this list gives all the losses aboard the quoted aircraft and occasionally these may have occurred on an earlier date when the aircraft was not itself lost. Please check the dates of death carefully.

Name Outcome
Farla F L (P/O) Died
Lawson K (Sgt) Died
Skinner D B E (Sgt) Died
Wartnaby G (F/S) Died

Last Operation Information

Start Date 29-01-1943
End Date 30-01-1943
Takeoff Station Upper Heyford
Day/Night Raid Night (43% moon)
Operation Training - Cross Country
Reason for Aircraft Loss Aircraft took off from Upper Heyford on a training Cross Country flight which it completed, on return to base while still airborne they were ordered to fly a second sortie it was during this second sortie that the aircraft crashed at 00.05 hrs into the side of Brown Clee Hill near Kidderminster

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Casualty Pack

IBCC is delighted to introduce a unique facility to link the Losses Database to the relevant RAF Casualty Pack on the National Archives website. This project is the result of on-going collaboration between IBCC, the MOD Records Office and National Archives, Kew. This document describes what Casualty Packs are, when they were created, the process of making them available to the public and then goes on to describe the process by which you can view the contents of the packs. Casualty Packs (CPs) were created by the RAF whenever there was serious injury or loss of life associated with operational activity within the RAF. This includes operational flying losses, enemy action due to air raids, road accidents either on station or even off-station if they involved RAF vehicles. Deaths due to natural causes in service or accidents that did not involve RAF vehicles did not generally give rise to a CP.

CPs were originally given a unique reference number by the RAF. Each begins with the letter ‘P’ and is followed by six digits, then an oblique (forward slash) and the finally the year in which the incident took place- for example P396154/42.

The CPs are in the process of being made available to the general public as they are passed from the MOD Records Office, Portsmouth to National Archives, Kew. This process requires some rework to the files which is very time consuming, so the process of making them all available to National Archives will take several years. They are being made available in increasing date order.

Once CPs arrive at National Archives they are assigned a unique AIR81 number, so each CP has both a P-number and an AIR81 number. Both are searchable on the National Archives website under ‘Search the catalogue’ and both are included on the IBCC website.

The AIR81 reference on the IBCC website is a link to the file on the National Archives website. When you click on it, the relevant page will open in a new tab on your browser.

There is currently no plan to digitise AIR81 files, partly because they are fragile and partly because the information they contain can at times be sensitive, even harrowing, since they may contain exhumation reports and even photographs of corpses. Family members wishing to read the AIR81 files relating to their ancestors are advised to exercise caution and be guided by National Archives warnings where appropriate.

There are two means for accessing AIR81 files- to attend in person or to order a copy by post.

To attend in person, the attendee should first create a Reader’s Ticket. This can be done online by following this link: https://secure.nationalarchives.gov.uk/login/yourdetails. Then click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and click Order in Advance. Enter your Reader’s Ticket number and state the date on which you intend to visit. National Archives will have the file ready for you when you arrive, saving you time. When you visit Kew, you must quote the Reader’s Ticket number and take along two forms of ID- one bearing your signature and one bearing your address. When you view the files, you are permitted to take photographs of each page, should you wish.

Alternatively, if you wish to order a copy by post, please be aware that there is a charge for this service based on the number of pages in the file. Click on the AIR81 reference on the IBCC website and then click Request a Copy. There is an £8.40 charge for National Archives staff to access the file and give you a quotation for the copying service. The process takes around 24 days to complete and can be expensive.

IBCC wishes to thank the staff at the MOD Records Office and National Archives for their engagement and assistance in making this facility available to our website users.