Urquhart, Ronald Neil Died

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Personal Information

Rank F/S
Forename(s) Ronald Neil
Surname Urquhart
Gender M
Age 30
Date of Death 26-06-1942
Next of Kin Son of John Leslie Urquhart and Beryl Urquhart (née da Silva-Bald). Husband of Hilja Sophia Torikainen Urquhart (née Bjorklund). Marriage in in Elkton, Maryland, USA on 22 November 1936. Father of John Leslie Urquhart, born Brooklyn, N.Y. on 6 August 1938, and a second son on 3 April 1942. Hilja was born in Finland and she was divorced from her first husband (Paul Torikainen).
URQUHART RN

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Vickers Wellington IC
Serial Number X3213
Markings KJ-L

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Sage War Cemetery
Grave Reference 1. C. 9.

IBCC Memorial Information

Map
Directions to panel 109
URQUHART RN

Location

Row -
Panel 109
Column -
Line -

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

Phase 1
Panel Number 109

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/82332
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 91
Squadron 11 OTU
Trade Navigator
Country of Origin United States of America

Miscellaneous Information

Ronald was born in Kyshtym, Russia on 9 July 1911. His father was born to Scottish parents in Evanton, Scotland and was a mining engineer and entrepreneur. His family had made their fortune initially in liquorice but had later become involved in mining. His mother was American and shown as Eugenie Beryl, born in Niagara. He had a sister Jean, and brothers Ian and Neil. His schooling was at Hawtreys ( private school) 1920-1925, Harrow (private school) 1925 -1927 and between 1927-1928 he studied at the Royal School of Mines. The sport he enjoyed was swimming. Between 1928-1933 Ronald spent a year in his father’s mine in the South of France and then worked for Georges Irat Autos, Paris, an automobile manufacturing business as well as racing the cars around Paris. Then, back in New York he worked 1933-1940 for Hirsch Lilienthal & Co. of New York City as a Stock Broker.
He enlisted on 19 December 1940 (while the United States was still neutral and in so doing risked his citizenship) and embarked for the U.K. after training, on 12 November 1941. After arriving at 3PRC on 23 November 1941 he went on to 22 OTU 23 December 1941 and then 11 OTU 25 May 1942. He lost his life one month afterwards.

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
Falk V A B (Sgt) Died
Holden R (F/S) Died
Matthewman C T R (F/S) Died
Mitchell L A (Sgt) Died

Last Operation Information

Start Date 25-06-1942
End Date 26-06-1942
Takeoff Station Steeple Morden
Day/Night Raid Night (90% moon)
Operation Bremen
Reason for Aircraft Loss Hit by flak and crashed near Bad Zwischenahn, five killed
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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.