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Ellwood, John

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Personal Information

Rank LAC
Forename(s) John
Surname Ellwood
Gender M
Age 21
Decorations
Date of Death 30-04-1940
Next of Kin Son of William Arnold Ellwood and Catherine Ellwood (née Grisdale), of Warcop, Westmorland.
ELLWOOD J

Aircraft Information

Aircraft Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V
Serial Number N1421
Markings DY-C

Memorial Information

Burial/Memorial Country Norway
Burial/Memorial Place Sylling Churchyard
Grave Reference Grave 1
Epitaph WHAT WE KNOW NOT NOW WE SHALL KNOW HEREAFTER. "THY WILL BE DONE"

IBCC Memorial Information

Phase 2
Panel Number 160

Enlistment Information

Service Number 533022
Service Royal Air Force
Group 4
Squadron 102 (Ceylon)
Trade WOp/AG
Country of Origin United Kingdom

Other Memorials

Location St. Catherine's Church Barmby Moor, East Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Roll of Honour in wall mounted wooden case, Sqn Badge above
Memorial Text 102 (Ceylon) Sqn Roll of Honour and Sqn badge
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Location Pocklington Gliding Club, Pocklington Airfield, Easy Yorkshire
Country United Kingdom
Memorial Type Stylised Memorial with inscribed metal plaque
Memorial Text Memorial to 102 (Ceylon) Sqn RAF and 405 (Vancouver) Sqn RCAF which served at RAF Pocklington during WW2
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Miscellaneous Information

John’s mother died when he was a baby, and he was raised on Eden Gate Farm, Warcop, with Catherine’s father, Tom Grisdale, a farmer and Methodist lay preacher, as his guardian. In 1930, aged eleven, he transferred from Warcop School to Appleby Grammar School with a Westmorland scholarship.  John reached the fifth form, but did not pass his School Certificate in 1934 and left school in July, aged fifteen, becasue he was ‘needed at home on the farm’. A popular lad in the village, John played football for Warcop and billiards for Kirkby Stephen Conservative Club before joining the RAF in 1936. On the night of 29 April 1940 he was tail gunner in a Whitley Mk V bomber which took off from RAF Kinloss across the North Sea, its target the Oslo airfield in German-occupied Norway. Last reported 130 miles from the Norwegian coast, the aircraft encountered heavy flak and night fighters, its engines cut out and it hit the ground some 20 miles from Oslo.  John’s body was found at the crash site. He had been hit by a bullet and probably died before the plane went down. His four fellow crew survived and were taken prisoner by the Germans.
On the day that John failed to return a letter was sent to his father from R.A.F. Record Office. Confirmation of his death followed, and on 9 June a united memorial service was held at Warcop Methodist Chapel, with the Vicar of Warcop reading the lessons. Not until 1946, when the war was over, did the Ellwoods know that John had a grave in Stylling churchyard. In 1949 John’s father received a letter from Squadron Leader K. Murphy, reporting that he had visited the grave, photographs of which he enclosed. ‘I can only add that if I had to choose some place in which to be buried myself I would like [to be] there … Nothing breaks the magnificent peace and quiet beauty of this place except the noise of the birds, or the lowing of the cattle as they come to the barn for milking – sounds to which he was well accustomed in his young life’.
His epitaph reads "What we know not now we shall know hereafter. Thy will be done".

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

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The National Archives

Record of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/807/16
Summary of Events (Operational Record Book) AIR 27/807/15

Last Operation Information

Start Date 29-04-1940
End Date 30-04-1940
Takeoff Station Kinloss
Day/Night Raid Night (44% moon)
Operation Oslo-Fornebu airfield
Reason for Loss Eyewitnesses describe how the aircraft was seen passing overhead on fire with ammunition exploding on board due to the heat. It then circled over the nearby hills to give the other crew members chance to put out the fire. One of the engines was on fire and the pilot later wrote in his logbook that he had no way to control the aircraft. He ordered two of the men to abandon and they complied before the aircraft made a wide turn and then exploded. It crashed near Sylling, west of Oslo. Villagers headed to the scene through snow up to their waists. They found LAC Ellwood lying dead outside of the aircraft. A doctor in the search party examined his body and concluded that he sustained fatal injuries before the aircraft crashed. The other four crew members survived to become PoW.

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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.