Fatal Air Crash at Wickhamford - 14th August 1941
On 14th August 1941 a Hampden AD935 aircraft, OL-U, belonging to 83 Squadron set off from RAF Scampton near Lincoln on a training flight (the air base was later to become famous as the home of the Dambuster Squadron). It was flown by Pilot P/O Ernest R Davis and his crew members were Sergeants Gilbert Arthur Newbold and W Wells. The aircraft never returned as it crashed at the Willersey Road/Golden Lane junction on the borders of Badsey and Wickhamford.
Pilot Officer Davis’ wife Helga was nanny to two children of the Loehnis family at Hody’s Place, Wickhamford, and on that day he told his wife that he would bring the aircraft over from Lincolnshire to fly past Hody’s Place. He attempted a low pass, approaching from the west, probably following the line of Wickhamford Lane towards the Manor and Church. As he came into the village the plane clipped the tops of some trees, just missed hitting the houses and then crashed into an apple orchard that was alongside the Badsey to Willersey Road. The orchard belonged to Mr Ballard of Badsey.
Pilot Officer Davis and Gilbert Newbold of the Volunteer Reserve of the RAF were killed, but Sergeant W Wells survived the crash, thanks to the quick thinking of two local people. The rescuers were 57-year-old Badsey blacksmith and market gardener, Francis Wheeler, and his daughter, 26-year-old Mrs Doris May Haynes. They were recommended for the Albert Medal, but this recommendation was turned down and no award was made. However, they both received a National Commendation in a list of Civil Defence Honours which was published in The London Gazette. The newspaper report in The Evesham Journal said that “they dragged and carried the pilot to safety, despite explosions from ammunition and the danger of the petrol tanks exploding” (it was the Sergeant they dragged to safety, not the pilot).