A collection of photos about the memorial to two Second World War Coastal Command aircrews who lost their lives when their Halifax aircraft collided over Tiree airfield on 16 August 1944. The memorial is situated outside the entrace to Tiree Airport. It was unveiled on the 70th anniversary of the collision, 2014, by Ken Organ, the son of the pilot of one of the aircraft, Flying Officer Kenneth William Organ RAFVR.
The memorial reads as follows:
In memory of two Second World War Coastal Command aircrews who tragically lost their lives when their Handley Page Halifax aircraft collided over this airfield on Wednesday 16th August 1944
Flying Officer Kenneth William Organ • Captain • Age 24 – RAFVR Pilot Officer Barry Waltham Smith • 2nd Pilot • Age 23 – RAFVR Flying Officer Kenneth Oates • Navigator • Age 23 • RAFVR Flying Officer John Alexander Peterson • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner • Age 26 • RAAF Warrant Offcer William Arthur Graham • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner • Age 21 • RAAF Flight Sergeant Ronald Victor Cresswell • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner • Age 23 • RAFVR Sergeant Arthur Marshall • Flight Engineer • Age 22 • RAFVR Sergeant Peter Geoffrey Smith • Meteorological Observer • Age 20 – RAEVR
Flying Officer Neil Douglas Thomson Turner • Captain • Age 23 • RAFVR Flying Officer Leonard Revilliod – 2nd Pilot • Age 21 – RAFVR Flying Officer Thomas Stephens • Navigator • Age 32 – RAAF Pilot Officer Frank Bradley • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner • Age 32 • RCAF Pilot Officer Mortimer Regenstreif • Wireless Operator/Air Gunner • Age 22 – RCAF Warrant Officer Philip Heslop Milne • Wireless Operator Air Gunner • Age 24 • RAFVR Sergeant Kenneth Williams • Flight Engineer • Age 22 • RAFVR Sergeant Roy Stevenson • Meteorological Observer • Age 20 • RAFVR
This memorial was unveiled by Kenneth Organ on 16th August 2014
The memorial at Tiree Airport
Ken Organ lays a wreath at 1.25pm on 16 August 2024, marking the 80th anniversary of the collision. Notice the piece of wreckage of one of the aircraft recently recovered from the loch at Island House
Ken Organ on his visit to An iodhlann on 16 August 2024 to view the RAF Tiree collection
Bound composition titled ‘A Visit to Coll’ by Catriona Smyth, 2002. Contains photographs of gravestones in the old and new graveyards on Coll, and a transcription of their inscriptions. Names include Lightbody, MacDougall, Ferguson, Fainges, Taylor, MacKinnon, MacCalum, MacFadyen and McPadyen. War graves include a Royal Marine of the ‘Viknor’, Harvey or Gibson of the ‘Racoon’, Pontus of the ‘Arandor Star’, and several unamed sailors of the Merchant Navy.
Small, corroded part from the Fairey Swordfish biplane torpedo bomber that crashed on Kennavara during WWII. Fairey Swordfish operated from aircraft carriers and contributed to the sinking of many enemy ships.
Photocopies of three airmail letters between brothers Angus (Gus) and Alasdair (Ali) McLellan, and to their mother Mrs R McLellan, Linlithgow, dated March 1943 and December 1944. Angus served with RAF Ceylon, while Ali served with the Hussars. The letter dated 20/3/1943 from Ali to his mother mentions Charles MacLean of Cornaig, who went missing in action: “Has Mrs MacLean heard any more news about Charles or is he still missing? She must be very upset over it all. How is his father taking the news?” The letters were found by the Findlaters in the old School House in Scarinish.
Softback book ‘No Shame in Fear’ by Alex C. MacLean, 2016. Alex C. Maclean was born on the Isle of Tiree in 1923, and lived there until the age of fourteen, when he went to sea. This is a first-hand account of the WW2 Atlantic convoys and the devastation of war. Stalked by German U-boats, cast adrift in a lifeboat, it also tells of the difficulties of the post-war period, in building a decent family life and coming to terms with his own history back on Tiree. Foreword by Donald S. Murray.
Metal dessert spoon engraved with ‘NAAFI’ on the handle and encrusted with dark substance. Found in the ground in a stackyard in Barrapol in 2016, it would originally have been part of the cutlery stock of one of the RAF NAAFIs on Tiree (probably Hough) during WWII, but has since been used for mixing paint/varnish/glue on the croft.
A sea mine recently discovered under gravel on the Sandaig shore, is now on display outside An Iodhlann. When a Bomb Disposal Team dug up the mine on the 3rd of August, it was found to be empty of explosive, safe and reasonably intact. We have positioned it so that its innards are visible, as well as the locations of detonation horns and the hole where a time-sensitive self-destruct mechanism was installed. Hundreds of pebbles and shells are fused onto its surface. Tens of thousands of similar mines were laid around the Hebrides and the North Sea during the first and second world wars.
