Page 18 - Oundle Life February 2024

Lancaster were trapped when the rear exit door jammed. For Wireless Operator Flight Sergeant Cecil Ryall, Rear Gunner Sergeant Thomas Higgins, and Mid-Upper Gunner Sergeant George O’Neill, there was no way out.
north of
Brigstock on
the road to Oundle (Harley Way).
The memorial was erected in 1998
after much fundraising by a local man,
ex-RAF Electrical Fitter Paul Knight. The Lancaster of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – flanked by a Spitfire and a Hurricane – marked the occasion with a flypast.
Paul Knight passed away in 2016, aged 86. The memorial he worked so hard to create still stands.
Our sincere thanks to Jane Jones for her help in researching this article.
Local resident Peter Caswell was just
a boy when he witnessed the tragedy unfolding from his back garden. “The Lancaster came over the top of the
house, between the two chimneys, from
the direction of Samby Sykes Wood,”
he recalled years later. “The angle of
the plane was such that the tip of the wing just missed the house roof and hit the ground in the stack yard. It set fire to the wheat and oat stack and the plane somersaulted and made three holes in the ground. The tail broke off and ended up in the dyke, with Rear Gunner Sergeant Thomas Higgins inside.”
All three rear crew members died in
the crash. The four who survived were all dead within a year. Today the heroic crew
of Lancaster DV361 are remembered by a memorial which stands near the crash site, by the entrance to Welland Gliding Club, just
All three rear crew members died in the crash
Stuart Barker is a professional writer and author. He has a keen interest in local history and likes nothing better than riding round Northants visiting historical sites on his motorcycle.
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