LEST WE FORGET
Flight Lieutenant Laurence Roy BRADY
Service No: 402488
Born: Parramatta NSW, 9 November 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 16 September 1940
Unit: Empire Test Pilots School, RAF Station Boscombe Down
Died: Aircraft Accident (Wellington aircraft X3594), Wiltshire, 4 July 1944, Aged 28 Years
Buried: Brookwood Military Cemetery, Surrey
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Roy Laurence Neil and Gladys May Brady; husband of Phyllis Ilma Brady, of Bellevue Hill, New South Wales, Australia
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Flight Lieutenant Brady previously served with No. 1 Aircraft Depot, RAAF Station Laverton, Victoria, and had extensive experience in conducting flight trials.
At 1113 hours on 4 July 1944, Wellington X3594 took off from Boscombe Down with Flight Lieutenant Bonnar, a Test Pilot at the Test Pilot School, on board to observe the trial. The flight properly authorised by Wing Commander Powell of the Test Pilots School. During the flight the aircraft crashed in Wiltshire and both on board were killed.
The crew members of X3594 were:
Flight Lieutenant Laurence Roy Brady (402488) (Pilot)
Flight Lieutenant Norman John Bonnar DFC AFC (69437) (RAFVR) (Test Pilot)
A later enquiry into the accident reported: “the exercise was for the purpose of carrying out longitudinal stability trials with the centre of gravity near the aft limit. At 1225 hours the aircraft was seen at a height estimated between 2/3000 feet in a vertical dive and travelling at high speed. It went on unchecked until the aircraft dived into the ground and caught fire. The cause of the accident is unknown, but it was thought that the aircraft may have developed an excessively heavy nose trim when reaching a steep angle in a divergent fugoid and the increase in speed prevented the pilot from recovering from the dive.”
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/6/663
Bibliography:
Ilbery, P.L.T. (Peter Leslie Thomas) (422957) Hatching an Air Force: 2SFTS, 5SFTS, 1BFTS Uranquinty and Wagga Wagga, Banner Books Maryborough QLD 4650, 2002