LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Hugh Murtagh MACROSSAN
From Australia serving in the Royal Air Force
Service No: 43288 (RAF)
Born: Date, Location unavailable
Enlisted in the RAF: 1939
Unit: No. 50 Squadron (RAF), RAF Station Lindholme
Died: Air Operations: (No. 50 Squadron Hampden I aircraft AD753), off the English Coast, 5 April 1941, Aged 26 Years
Buried: Unrecovered
CWGC Additional Information: Son of the Hon. Hugh Dennis Macrossan, Judge of the Supreme Court, Queensland, and Lydia Macrossan, of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 33, Runnymede Memorial, Surrey UK
Remembered: Commemorative Roll, Australian War Memorial, Canberra
Pilot Officer Macrossan was an Australian Cadet accepted for training by the RAF who embarked for the UK on 12 August 1939.
At 1205 hours on 5 April 1941, Hampden AD753 took off from Lindholme to attack Brest, France. The aircraft was later seen to dive vertically from 500 feet into the sea and explode south of the Isles of Scilly. The Hampden was flying No. 2 in the leading formation. All four crew members were killed and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
The crew members of AD753 were:
Sergeant Ronald Frank Cheesman (742195) (RAFVR) (Observer)
Flying Officer Hugh Murtagh Macrossan (43288) (RAF) (Pilot)
Sergeant John Henry Matthews (810051) (RAF (Auxiliary Air Force)) (Air Gunner)
Sergeant Frederick Richard Worthington (654174) (RAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
References:
Australian War Memorial Commemorative Roll On-Line Records
Chorley, W.R. Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 2 Aircraft and Aircrew Losses 1941, Midland Counties Publications UK, 1993
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Newton, Dennis A Few of the Few: Australians and the Battle of Britain, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT 2600, 1990