LEST WE FORGET
Pilot Officer Hamilton Lewis MADDISON
Service No: 404702
Born: Brisbane QLD, 30 April 1914
Enlisted in the RAAF: 8 November 1940
Unit: No. 217 Squadron (RAF)
Died: Aircraft Accident: (No. 210 Squadron Hudson aircraft FH430), Sri Lanka, 30 April 1943, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Colombo (Kanatte) General Cemetery, Sri Lanka
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Lewis Medley Maddison and Harriet Maddison, of Southport, Queensland, Australia
Roll of Honour: Southport QLD
Remembered: Panel 126, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
At 0555 hours on 30 April 1943 Hudson FH430 took off from RAF Vavunia detailed to carry out an anti-submarine north east detector patrols B and C. On return from the patrol the Pilot was ordered to carry out an anti-aircraft gun cooperation exercise. The pilot dived down to the runway and flew from one end to the other about 5 feet off the ground. He then pulled up sharply and climbed to approximately 3,000 feet. From approximately 2,500 feet he apparently sighted a gun -post position as a target and dived straight on the gun position at about a 30 degree angle of dive. He failed to pull out at a reasonable height, and it was not until he was about 100 feet from the ground that any apparent effort was made to pull out. Owing to the high speed the aircraft had gathered in the dive and to the terrific strain imposed on pulling out, the wings of the aircraft pulled back and the fuselage continued on to crash into trees about 50 yards from the runway at RAF Vavunia. The aircraft crashed at 1145 hours and all the crew members were killed.
The crew members of FH430 were:
Flight Sergeant Peter William Alexander Armstrong (403488) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flight Sergeant Robert Patrick Lansdale (951026) (RAFVR) (Navigator Bomb Aimer)
Pilot Officer Hamilton Lewis Maddison (404702) (Co-Pilot)
Flight Sergeant James Laurence McDonald (412892) (RNZAF) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Pilot Officer Leslie William Sanders (3895) (RNZAF) (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, 166/27/118
Bibliography:
Nesbit, Roy Conyers An Expendable Squadron: the Story of 217 Squadron, Coastal command 1939-1945, Pen & Sword Books, South Yorkshire UK 2014