LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant John William ALLSOP
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 39452 (RAF)
Born: Burnley VIC, 7 January 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 January 1936 (at RAAF Station Point Cook VIC)
Enlisted in the RAF: Date Unavailable
Unit: No. 10 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Dishforth
Died: Air Operations: (No. 10 Squadron Whitley IV aircraft K9018), North Sea, 2 October 1939, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Charles and Agnes Allsop; husband of Eva Constance Allsop, of Briar Hill, Victoria, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 1, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Supplementary Panel 12, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flight Lieutenant Allsop was an Australian Cadet trained for the RAF who embarked for the UK on 5 January 1937.
Whitley K9018 took off from Dishforth at 2215 hours on 1 October 1939 to attack Berlin. The aircraft was last heard on radio at 0505 hours on 2 October, when its position was fixed roughly 180 miles east of St. Abb’s Head, Berwick, Scotland. Despite an extensive search no trace of the aircraft or its crew was ever found. Their names are now commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
The crew members of K9018 were:
Flight Lieutenant John William Allsop (39452) (RAF) (Pilot)
Aircraftman Class 1 John Rogerson Bell (550003) (RAF)
Leading Aircraftman Fred Ellison (526415) (RAF)
Aircraftman Class 1 Alfred Francis Hill (545939) (RAF)
Pilot Officer Alan Gordon Salmon (40321) (RAF)
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records
Chorley, W.R. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 1 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1939-1940, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1992
Department of Veteran’s Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A9300 ALLSOP J W
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990