Handley Page 0/400 J2259

Dear Greg,

Re. my post of 9th March, I’m avid for further information. I was wondering if you’d heard anything back from Liverpool about the log of the Itajahy.

Also, would the port authority not have noted the landing of passengers who were not on any crew or official passenger list?

Regards,

Hal

Greetings to all of you. I have just joined the Forum, better late than never to have discovered it.

Regarding the mystery passengers aboard J2259, I think I can identify one of them. I believe it was my father, Constable John Hennigan of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

When I was a little boy with a huge interest in aircraft, he once told me why he’d never go up in an aeroplane again. The story was essentially the same as the facts now known about J2259. He said it was a Handley Page bomber and that, as it began to sink by the nose, some of the crew swam back to the tailplane to balance it. So, unless someone knows of another ditching in the Irish sea 1920-21 similar in detail, I am convinced that J2259 is the aircraft I heard about some sixty years ago.

John Hennigan joined the RIC in 1912 and remained a lowly Constable until disbandment in 1922. As to what he was doing aboard J2259, I think it most likely he was carrying despatches. He certainly wasn’t Secret Service although perhaps the other passenger was James Bond’s grandfather…

Like so many of his generation, he never spoke of those years and unfortunately died before I was old enough to have a mature conversation with him. But I am now working on a book about the world he lived in, trying to understand the situation a young man found himself in. I’m very short of personal details but am delighted to have corroborated a key part of his story and indebted to all of you. I’ve learned more in the past week than in all the preceding years.

If anyone can add anything to the account, I would be most grateful. I thought of writing to the Liverpool Museum for info on the ship’s log but perhaps someone has already done so. Details such as the time of the ditching and rescue and the weather conditions are also relevant. Any help would be most welcome.

Hal

Dave,

Many thanks for that. On another forum, a respected Irish aviation historian has given me some pointers for some files to look at on my next trip to TNA. I’ll report back on what I find, although I’m not likely to be there for a few weeks yet 🙂

All the best,

Greg

It’s a General Service hangar of which Baldonel had several. Looking at Google Earth, two still exist, I believe. These GS types were common to many aerodromes, Shotwick/Sealand included, so this doesn’t reallly prove anything. I would say that the unkempt grass is a bit unusual and the tree line fits with GE.

Paul, having read your message properly, I see that it’d be beneficial to post it here, so here goes. There’s a large hangar in the background, but not much else identifiable in the photo…

L/O

Greg

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Paul – can you drop me your email address, or email me (my email address is further up this thread) and I’ll get a scan sent off to you 🙂

L/O

Greg

Hi Paul. Give me your email address via pm and I’ll send you the scans from the book which I have just sent to Greg.

Greg

Could you post a scan of picture to see if anyone recognises the background (if of course you can see any background) me thinks 100 Sqn was acting as ‘passenger airline’ across Irish Sea at the time

Dave

Could you please provide a list of 100 Sqn BF Serials in the book – I would like to cross reference with some Losses I have in Ireland at the time

Many thanks

Paul

Thanks Dave, I appreciate your efforts 🙂

L/O

Greg

Thanks Greg, I’ll email the scans. I was going to suggest that once we’d made contact via pm.

Morning Dave,

Many thanks for the additional info, great stuff!! If you do get chance to scan those pages, I’d be very grateful. If it’s easier for you to email them rather than PM them, please feel free to do so – my email address is ‘gregATgreg-harrison.co.uk’, replacing ‘AT’ with an ‘@’ 🙂

Flicking through Bowyer’s excellent “Handley Page Bombers of the First World War” last night after I’d logged off the PC for the evening, I came across a photo of J2259, allegedly taken at Baldonnel. I’d love to know where he came across that photo…

Diolch a dymuniadau gorau,
Thanks and best wishes,

Greg

I forgot to mention that Sealand was originally named Shotwick after another nearby village which was and still is just over the border in England. Pronounced Shottick, by the way. I don’t think it bcame Sealand until 1924.

Hi Greg

Volume 2 of Wings Across the Border – a History of Aviation in North Wales and the Northern Marshes, by Derrick Pratt and Mike Grant, has a few more details of this incident but any clandestine activity is not mentioned. I quote: “No 100 Squadron cadre, having abandoned its Handley Page o/400s, proceeded to Baldonnel via the Holyhead steamer on 10 Sept 1919, there to inherit Bristol F,2bs (seven serials are quoted here). It would be fully re-established as an army co-operation squadron with the absorption of Nos 117 and 141 Squadron cadres on 1 February 1920, adding a motley collection of Airco DH.9As and Avro 504Ks to their establishment. Interestingly Handley Page 0/400 J2259 was still on No 100 Squadron’s books when it crashed into the Irish Sea some 15 miles NW of Holyhead on 17 December 1920. ….”

There is also a short account of RAF goings on in Ireland at that time which may interest you. When I get time to scan the pages tomorrow I’ll send them via PM.

Dave Smith

Hi Atcham Tower,

Thanks for the reply. You’ve mentioned the magic word – Dublin!! Ever since I first became aware of this crash a few years ago, I’ve been convinced the real destination was Dublin, not Holyhead. I knew Valley was still some way off in 1920, but my knowledge of airfields isn’t good enough to know if there was a viable landing strip on Holyhead at that time – you’ve answered that for me. I’m convinced the two “passengers” were in fact British agents, as I alluded to in a post further up the thread. Proving it is going to be altogether rather more difficult, if not impossible. I don’t imagine for a second any records relating to RAF Sealand at the time are still in existence, and even if they were, I’ll bet my last bottle of beer they don’t mention this flight at all…

If you can suggest any pointers, I’d be grateful 🙂

Thanks again and all the best,

Greg

An intriguing tale! The Chester mentioned in your first post would have been RAF Sealand in N Wales, but only about four miles from the city. It was often used as a refuelling point for military flights en route to Dublin. As for Holyhead, there was of course no airfield there, Valley being far in the future.

Hi Brian – many thanks indeed for the additional “gen” and explanation of why the incident appeared to be reported far a wide in the “provincials”. I can confirm that the H-P was J2259, and not that as reported on the 18th of December. I’ve been digging around on this one all day, on and off, much to the detriment of my other researches, but it’s yielded some interesting information. My next task is to try and find some information, possibly from the NA, on the work of the British Secret Service in Ireland, and particularly Dublin, at the time. As this incident happened just a few weeks after “Bloody Sunday”, which saw several British Secret Service Agents killed, I’m wondering if the two “passengers”, who were variously reported at the time as RAF types and civilians, were in fact replacement agents on their way to Ireland. I suspect the answer to that question is hidden far deeper in a file somewhere than I’m ever going to be able to dig!!

Thanks again, all the best as always,

Greg

Got it, many thanks Paul. I suspect proper details of this incident, and the mission they were on, are still under lock and key. Certainly none of the published works on the Irish situation at the time, or the RAF involvment in it, mention it, and it isn’t mentioned in the 100 Squadron ORB. If I can just pin the aircraft, or Williamson, or Haworth-Booth down to 100 Squadron at the time of the ditching, then I’ll consider it a result.

L/O

Greg

Greg,

These reports from The Times might be of interest; notice the different serial numbers quoted – one appears to be a typo.

Saturday 18 December

Aeroplane’s fall in Irish Channel
Crew picked up by steamer

Lloyd’s agent at Holyhead telepgraphed last evening:-

Aeroplane Handley Page J2559 reported dropped into the sea 15 miles northwest of Holyhead. Steam lifeboat proceeded to render assistance. Later report received states that the crew have been picked up by a passing steamer.

Monday 20 December

Airmen rescued at sea
Wireless call for help answered

The survivors of the British RAF Handley Page aeroplane which, as reported in The Times on Saturday, came down in the Irish Sea on Friday, were landed at Liverpool on Saturday from the Elder Dempster steamer Itajahy. The occupants of the aeroplane numbered seven, all of whom have been rescued. They refused to make any statement, except that they belonged to the RAF and the machine was Handley Page J2259. The aeroplane left Chester for Holyhead about noon and while they were out at sea engine trouble developed. Before the aeroplane dropped into the sea a wireless message was sent out calling for assistance, and there were several replies. After sitting on the wings of the aeroplane for two hours the crew were rescued by a boat lowered from the Itajahy. The rescuers were only just in time. Within 15 minutes of their rescue the aeroplane disappeared.

As regards the reports in the provincial papers, I believe that the practice at the time was for editors to lift reports from national papers (frequently The Times) and modify them according to local needs (aka filling a gap in a publication)

Brian

Greg

DFC here
http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/special-collections/lot.php?specialcollection_id=106&lot_id=59501
Paul

Paul – many thanks for the links, great stuff 🙂

L/O

Greg

http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/special-collections/lot.php?specialcollection_id=106&lot_id=59501
http://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archive/catalogue-archive/lot.php?auction_id=356&lot_id=1100

http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C9752399