ON 20TH MAY, DOWNSIDE MARKED THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE AIR CRASH WITH A COMMEMORATIVE SERVICE TO REMEMBER THE NINE PUPILS OF THE SCHOOL AND THE PILOT WHO LOST THEIR LIVES THAT DAY.
The commemorative event was held to mark the date of the tragic air crash in 1943 and began with a service held in the Monks’ Cemetery led by Fr Michael Patey, with a contingent of the Downside CCF and the choir in attendance. Click here to see the Order of Service.
Fr Michael then blessed the newly planted Mount Fuji Cherry Tree, kindly donated by an OG to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the air crash whilst remembering all who are buried in the Monastic Cemetery. The cherry tree is situated opposite the Monks’ Cemetery in line with the graves of the pupils and pilot who were killed.
Guests then gathered at the Pavilion for refreshments and a moment of reflection where Anthony Pontifex (S60), President of the Downside Wanderers Cricket Club, and Richard Jones, Director of Sport, said a few words followed by a two-minute silence and the last post played by a pupil. Jonny Grew (C77), President of St Gregory’s Society, laid a wreath on behalf of all Old Gregorians at the Pavilion.
The event was a sombre and moving remembrance of those who had died but it was also a chance for stories to be told and memories to be shared. The small exhibition of archive material on display was also a stark reminder of the tragedy which occurred that day.
Dom Leo Maidlow Davis, Chaplain to St Gregory’s Society, shares his thoughts and memories.
In most places, they talk about the War; at Downside it’s the air crash. Indeed, it is hard to overestimate the effects of the accident that took the lives of nine boys and the pilot in the Royal Navy Sea Hurricane crash of 15 May 1943. On the 80th anniversary there is now no one in the monastic community who witnessed the crash. However, a great many of us remember Dom Brendan Lavery and Dom Ralph Russell, who anointed the more seriously injured, while Dom Dunstan Pontifex gave absolution. Dom Wulstan Phillipson, the House Master of nearly all the boys concerned, did heroic rescue work. Many Gregorians can remember Dom Philip Jebb, who had witnessed the crash as a boy, telling us that we needed to realise that our life could end at any moment; a plane could crash through the roof of the church in which we were gathered.
An extraordinary feature of the crash was that it happened on a beautiful day in May on a hot and lazy afternoon of cricket. No doctors or emergency services reached the site of the crash in the first hour, although the nurses came up from the School Infirmary and did their utmost to tend the injured. It was the boys themselves and the Army team who happened to be playing on the ground who had to give most of the First Aid. A memory that comes to me is meeting with an Old Gregorian who had been there at the time. A boy himself, he had carried one of the boys down to the school; he told me he had died in his arms. In addition to the nine boys who died, fourteen others were injured, ten of them seriously. My mother, who worked at East Grinstead under Sir Archibald McIndoe, the world-famous New Zealand plastic surgeon, nursed one of the boys who had been badly burnt and remembered the celebration of his sixteenth birthday in hospital.
A few years ago, I met an elderly couple in the monastic cemetery. They told me they had come over from New Zealand. The husband had been a contemporary of the pilot, Sub-Lt Alan McCracken, RNZNVR, who had been a great friend in their school days at the Sacred Heart School in Aukland. Together they had joined the Royal New Zealand Volunteer Reserves, very few of whom survived the War. The visitor wanted to visit the graves of as many of his fellow volunteers as he could find. His school in Auckland has taken great care to remember the Downside crash and its victims. They were grateful to Abbot Trafford who had Sub-Lt McCracken exhumed and brought to Downside to lie alongside the boys his plane had killed. A few years ago, some of the staff and pupils came to Downside to remember Sub-Lt McCracken and others of their alumni who had died fighting with the Allies.
Like so many war-time tragedies, the air crash came about through foolishness, principally that of the trainer pilot. But the disaster also witnessed exceptional heroism. In a strange way this anniversary invites us both to grieve for the victims and their families and friends, and to give thanks for those who gave everything they could to help. We send special greetings to the survivors who have come to Downside on this 80th anniversary and to those who are remembering that day at home. May those who died and who are buried in the monastic cemetery now rest together in the peace of the Risen Christ.
