October Last Post

We welcomed members of the Intelligence Corps to the ceremony this month.

We had several Individual Remembrances this month. In the closing month of the Battle of Britain, 85 years ago today, Pilot Office Norman Sutton of 72 Squadron, at Biggin Hill and Flying Officer Wojciech Januszewich of 303 Squadron based at Northholt were killed on the 5th October 1940.

Pilot Officer Normon Sutton died when his plane collided with another, whose pilot survived, while taking off from Biggin Hill to intercept ME109s over Maidstone. Sutton’s Spitfire crashed and burned out. Sutton was 26 years old when he died. He is buried in St. Helen’s Cemetry, Lancashire.

Flying Officer Wojciech Januszewich was killed when his Hurricane was shot down by ME109s, crashing in flames at Stowting in Kent. Januszewich was 29. He is buried in Northwood Cemetery and is remembered on the Polish Air Force War Memorial at Northholt.

80 years ago today on 5th October 1945, the Elvetham are crash occurred. The crash involved a Consolidated Liberator GR VI aircraft, serial number KG867, of 311 (Czechoslovak) Squadron Royal Air Force. The aircraft caught fire five minutes into its flight and crashed at Elvetham, east of Hartley Wintney, Hampshire. All 23 people on board were killed—17 official passengers, five crew members and one stowaway.

All 23 victims were Czechoslovak and included nine women and five very young children. They were returning home after World War II. All five of the aircrew were buried in the Czechoslovak section of Brookwood Military Cemetery and most of the passengers share a common grave in the civilian cemetery in Long Avenue called the Old Roman Catholic Ground. The remaining five are buried elsewhere.

Flight Sergeant Zdenĕk Sedlák and his wife Edita Sedláková, Aircraftwoman 1st Class of the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force were onboard the aircraft and are buried together here in Brookwood.

Captain William Goodwin of the Intelligence Corps, service number 295087 served in various roles during World War II, including the Royal Fusiliers (TA), the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the Corps of Military Police and the Intelligence Corps.

In June 1942 he attended Sandhurst as an officer cadet and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Intelligence Corps in October 1942. After further intelligence and counter-intelligence training, he served with Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF) and was promoted to active captain in March 1945.

In July 1945, with the war in Europe over, Goodwin was attached to the Counter Intelligence Bureau of the Control Commission for Germany, but based in London at Oxford Circus. He was at home in London when, on the evening of 29th September 1945, his wife found him lying on the floor with a gunshot wound to the head. He was still alive, but died soon after admission in hospital.

The Coroner’s verdict was that he had taken his own life when the balance of his mind was disturbed. He is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery in Plot 5, Row E, Grave 17, he was 27 years old.