LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Noel Henry KNIGHT-BROWN
Service No: 403348
Born: Sydney NSW, 30 December 1917
Enlisted in the RAAF: 6 January 1941
Unit: No. 1481 Bombing (Gunnery) Flight (RAF), RAF Station Binbrook
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 1481 Bombing (Gunnery) Flight Martinet aircraft HP322), North Sea, 26 October 1943, Aged 25 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Basil Frederick and Julia Knight-Brown; husband of Henrietta Gordon Knight-Brown, of Hamilton, Lanarkshire
Roll of Honour: Mount Irvine NSW
Remembered: Panel 188, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Panel 125, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
Remembered: Mount Wilson War Memorial, Mount Wilson NSW
At 1037 hours on 26 October 1943 Martinet HP 322 took off from Binbrook to carry out a non-operational flight from Binbrook to Mabelthorpe – Skegnes – Mablethorpe – Binbrook. The aircraft was detailed to carry out a weather test at a gunnery range some 21 miles from the airfield between Mablethorpe and Skegnes, but nothing was heard from the aircraft after take off and it did not return to base. In subsequent searches a wing was picked up at sea by a trawler and was identified as being fitted to the missing aircraft. It was later concluded that the aircraft and crew members were lost at sea.
The crew members of HP322 were:
Flying Officer Noel Henry Knight-Brown (403348) (Pilot)
Flight Sergeant Raymond Johnston Wright DFM (415049) (RNZAF) (Second Pilot)
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, 166/23/29
Register of War Memorials in New South Wales On-Line