LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Adrian Victor BROWNE
Service No: 403643
Born: Manly NSW, 9 April 1918
Enlisted in the RAAF: 3 February 1941
Unit: No. 30 Operational Training Unit (RAF), Satellite airfield RAF Station Seighford, Staffordshire
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 30 Operational Training Unit Hurricane aircraft LF170), near Seighford, 25 October 1944, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Wallasey (Frankby) Cemetery, Cheshire
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Montague Samuel Washington Browne and Elizabeth Ellene Browne; husband of Edna Edith Browne, of Morton, Cheshire, England
Roll of Honour: Sydney NSW
Remembered: Panel 119, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Australia Remembers 1945-1995 Memorial, Lane Cove NSW
At 1440 hours on the 25 October 1944, Flying Officer Browne in Hurricane LF170 took off from Seighford engaged in an air test and local flying. Fifteen minutes later LF170 crashed into a tree near the Officers Mess, on the edge of the satellite airfield, killing Flying Officer Browne.
Flying Officer Ward, the Duty Control Officer later reported: “I was on duty at 1445 hours in the Watch Office at Seighford. I heard an aircraft approaching and I saw a Hurricane flying down the perimeter track at a height of 15/20 feet. It climbed and flew away in an easterly direction. Two more Hurricanes were in the circuit and I saw them climbing in the same direction. They were joined by the third aircraft, and I was of the opinion that they had then left the airfield. A few minutes later my attention was drawn to a Hurricane making for the Watch Office from the east. It joined the other two aircraft and Q and V called up for permission to land, but the third aircraft “P” came past the east side of the Watch Office in a north north west direction at a height of 10 feet flew over the locker room but failed to clear the tree between the two hangars. The port wing of the aircraft caught branches and a section of the wing was torn from the aircraft. The aircraft immediately turned on its back, and disappeared behind the trees. I called the fire tender and ambulance immediately.”
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, 166/6/756
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line