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Dempsay, Ronald

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Personal Information

Rank F/S
Forename(s) Ronald
Surname Dempsay
Gender M
Age 21
Date of Death 13-10-1942
Next of Kin Son of William Dempsay and Jane Dempsay (née Anderson), of North Cobalt, Ontario, Canada.
DEMPSAY R

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Short Stirling I
Serial Number BK599
Markings BU-R

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Germany
Burial/Memorial Place Kiel War Cemetery
Grave Reference Coll. grave 1. C. 4-7.
Epitaph

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 154

Enlistment Information

Service Number R/69265
Service Royal Canadian Air Force
Group 3
Squadron 214 (Federated Malay States)
Squadron Motto Ultor in umbris (Avenging in the shadows)
Trade Navigator
Country of Origin Canada

Other Memorials

Location Village Green, Chedburgh, Suffolk
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Brick Monument with Inscribed Marble Tablets
Memorial Text In memory and honour of the Royal Air Force and Polish Air Force Squadrons who were based at RAF Chedburgh 1942 - 1946
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Location All Saints Church, Chedburgh, Suffolk
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Memorial Plaques and RoH within wooden case
Memorial Text Roll of Honour and scroll remembering the members of the Royal and Polish Air Forces who served at RAF Chedburgh 1942 - 1946
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Miscellaneous Information

Ronald was born on 7 October 1921 at North Cobalt, Ontario. His father was born at Ballymoney, County Antrim, Ireland and worked as a mechanic and his mother was born at Otter Lake, Québec. He attended Cobalt Public School 1929-1935 (manual training course) followed by the High School, 1936-1940.(Matric). The sporting activities he enjoyed were hockey, softball, swimming, football and track events. As he was still a High School student he had no occupation.
Ronald enlisted at North Bay on 16 November 1940 and after training embarked from Canada on 8 January 1942 for the U.K. He arrived at 3 PRC on 21 January 1942 and then continued to 2 AOS 25 February 1942, 22 OTU 28 April 1942, 101 CF 15 August 1942, 214 Squadron 2 October 1942. Sadly Ronald was to lose his life only days later on 13 October 1942. He had turned 21 a matter of days before he lost his life.

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1321/20
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/1321/19

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.

Davison R W (F/S)
Miller S A (Sgt)
Murray G D (F/S)
Phalempin G F J (F/S)

Last Operation Information

Start Date 13-10-1942
End Date 14-10-1942
Takeoff Station Chedburgh
Day/Night Raid Night (19% moon)
Operation Kiel. 288 aircraft, 8 losses (2.8%). A decoy fire drew much of the fire away from the target but the rest was well concentrated on the town. A local diarist noted that there was a huge amount of roof and glass damage and this is due to the use of high capacity blast bombs. He also noted that flak fire was very late in beginning but actually this was a ploy by the German defences to prevent early identification of the target.
Reason for Loss Shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at Felde, Germany

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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.