A Proctor mystery?

Welcome to the forum, Patrick. Anything more that you can contribute, from family knowledge, to this enigmatic story will be much appreciated, I am sure. And if you haven’t yet done so, you may care to look at the thread on the other forum – http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=1153.0. – where this topic had its origin.

I have been given some family info on this flight. My parents were in Zurich when G.Coleman visited them to drop off his son, saying he had to deliver a package to the UK. An ex-RAF colleague of his informed them that whatever the flight plan he had never planned to make it to Stansted but had intended to have a reason to land at RAF Manston to drop off the package. Does this explain the lack of fuel to reach Stansted?

Hi Nic,
I am George’s third child, Patrick. I was adopted at age 4 following this tragic incident, and was always told the the plane came down as a result of a build up of ice on the wings. It is ironic that such an experienced pilot, who survived the entire war, was excellent at aerobatics, and was working as a flying instructor at the time, should die this way. His family was split up following his disappearance and I do not believe that his wife ever saw their children again. It is certainly true that nothing had been found by 1971 when I was briefly reunited with my elder brother Michael, his dutch wife Maria, and my elder sister Betty.

Ice on wings

On another forum that I frequent, the following has ben posted:

“A Proctor V, serial G-AHWP, disappeared off Margate on 6th January 1948. At the controls was S/Ldr. G. Coleman, with a Mr. G. Dawson as passenger – the aircraft was on a private flight from Zurich to Stanstead. At 17.50 the pilot had established R/T communivation with RAF Manston asking for bearings – the weather was poor, with cloudbase at 1200 feet, 9/10 and visibility approximately 200 yards.

At 19.55 the pilot of the Proctor warned that his endurance was limited to 25 minutes. It was decided by Air Traffic Control that Manston was the only viable option for a landing, and all available lighting was put into operation at that airfield – this included SANDRA searchlights, signal mortars and pyrotechnics. The captain of the Proctor requested FIDO as well, but the Station Commander decided that this would take too long to implement and wouldn’t have given any greater benefit. The pilot reported that he saw the searchlights and mortar fire, but no further communications were received after 20.36. The police were informed, and told to look out for any signs of an aircraft crash, and at 20.49 the Margate and Ramsgate Lifeboats were launched and searched an area up to 10 miles from the coast. A Constellation on a trip from Brussels to London was asked to circle the area and this it did, at a height of 1000 feet, for 20 minutes without success. The Coastguard reported sighting flares out to sea.

The aircraft and the bodies weren’t recovered at that time, and I don’t know if anything has ever been found…”.

Can anyone add any information to this – in particular, an explanation of the cause of the loss of G-AHWP and whether the aeroplane and its occupants were recovered?

Hi,
I am George’s third child, Patrick. I was adopted at age 4 following this tragic incident, and was always told the the plane came down as a result of a build up of ice on the wings. It is ironic that such an experienced pilot, who survived the entire war, was excellent at aerobatics, and was working as a flying instructor at the time, should die this way. His family was split up following his disappearance and I do not believe that his wife ever saw their children again. It is certainly true that nothing had been found by 1971 when I was briefly reunited with my elder brother Michael, his dutch wife Maria, and my elder sister Betty.

Thank you, niccoleman, for your continuing input to this topic.

My uninformed guess would be that if one was planning to fly from Zurich to Manston (non-stop? – but I don’t if this has been established), it might be regarded as a tad reckless to fuel a Proctor with only just enough to get there – particularly as the last and most critical part of the flight would have been over water. Thus if one assumes that it was fuelled to allow a realistic margin of error, it would be reasonable to think that it had enough fuel to make Stansted. After all, as the Proctor flies the distance between Manston and Stansted is less than 100 km whereas the distance from Zurich to Manston is approaching 700 km! But would someone who is better informed care to comment?

Thank you, niccoleman, for your continuing input to this topic.

My uninformed guess would be that if one was planning to fly from Zurich to Manston (non-stop? – but I don’t if this has been established), it might be regarded as a tad reckless to fuel a Proctor with only just enough to get there – particularly as the last and most critical part of the flight would have been over water. Thus if one assumes that it was fuelled to allow a realistic margin of error, it would be reasonable to think that it had enough fuel to make Stansted. After all, as the Proctor flies the distance between Manston and Stansted is less than 100 km whereas the distance from Zurich to Manston is approaching 700 km! But would someone who is better informed care to comment?

I have been given some family info on this flight. My parents were in Zurich when G.Coleman visited them to drop off his son, saying he had to deliver a package to the UK. An ex-RAF colleague of his informed them that whatever the flight plan he had never planned to make it to Stansted but had intended to have a reason to land at RAF Manston to drop off the package. Does this explain the lack of fuel to reach Stansted?

I have been given some family info on this flight. My parents were in Zurich when G.Coleman visited them to drop off his son, saying he had to deliver a package to the UK. An ex-RAF colleague of his informed them that whatever the flight plan he had never planned to make it to Stansted but had intended to have a reason to land at RAF Manston to drop off the package. Does this explain the lack of fuel to reach Stansted?

I have received the following report. Unfortunately no one seems to know where it originated from:
Squadron Leader Coleman left Zurich 14.30 hrs 6th of January 1948 in aircraft Proctor G-AHWP. At 17.50 hrs RAF Station Manston received RT message from pilot requesting weather report and homing bearing for Manston. Between 18.00 and 20.25 hrs that evening various RT messages were received and given to the aircraft. At 20.30 hrs message received by RAF Station Manston stating that petrol was nil and that aircraft would be ditched (he apparently requested permission to land on a French airstrip but was told they had no lights- he suggested that they use car headlights –but apparently received no cooperation. Number 19 Air Sea Rescue group dispatched aircraft to search for the missing Proctor and the Ramsgate and Margate lifeboats were also out. No trace of the aircraft or occupants was ever found.

Is there any way to find out the veracity of the statement that the French airfield was unhelpful?

Thanks Sycamore. Yes, I had wondered if the headwind as he neared Malta had increased from what had been forecast, or if the plane had been modified since his last simlar trip, or just a navigation mistake by a tired man nearly twice the age of some of his fellow pilots. Yes, I was in correspondence with Aishlyn and pointed her to Pakistan.
Apologies if these latest messages have got off-topic rather but I suppose an understanding of the pilot could help explain the Proctor’s disappearance..

Nic, I suppose it is conceivable that the `Dawson` on 272 could have been related to the Proctor owner/passenger. Have you `googled` the Fred Duquette ` story and video at all ? With hindsight it is probably easy to suggest that when the 3 Beaus set out from Cairo for Malta,and the first one went unserviceable and landed at Mersa,that they should all have landed,and refuelled,and then proceeded as a pair if the third a/c could not become serviceable in time.However,it is also possible that your Uncle could have been told to `make haste` to Malta.Usually on a formation flight it is usually the `others` and not the leader who use more fuel,as it so happens in this case; however strong NW headwinds did not help in the latter half of the flight;it is also unclear as to the fuel tankage of the particular Mark of Beaufighter they had,as I think aircraft were `modded` at various stages,not always off the production line. He had also had a `ditching` at some point as well whilst operating out of Malta.
Have you looked at `mygenesunited` website as there was a reference to a lady called Aishlyn,looking for her Grandmother,who went to Pakistan in Nov 1948(date of search was 14 /3/2003)..? B

Nic, did your Father ever say what the aircraft owner,Mr Dawson did for business,and whether he had known GBSC in the RAF; ?

From 272 Squadron log, Malta:
a Sgt Dawson, initials variously W.J. or D.J., was in 272 Sq. with Sq/L Coleman. 23rd March 1943 Sgt Dawson and P/O Grimes “became disengaged from the formation in some mysterious fashion and failed to return to base. Nothing is known of what happened to it”.
So unlikely to be our Dawson, unless they had been picked up by the enemy.

According to this report the passenger, George Dawson, was the owner and not the owner’s son as one report has it. He seems to have owned several planes.
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200140.html?search=proctor
From the accident report of the crash 10 months earlier of another of his Proctors
http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1948/1948%20-%200200.html
it does seem to have been rather a cowboy outfit, but I guess that was the norm in the years immediately after the war.

Thank you, niccoleman. It will be interesting to learn of whatever further information emerges from your family.

I shall ask other family members if they know more. As regards the strange lack of debris – Some years later we lost another uncle who was sailing alone across the English Channel and no body was ever found, though I believe a small piece of his sailing dinghy washed up.

Perhaps more surprising still – if it be the case – is that the bodies of the pilot and his passenger were not washed up on either the English or French coast. Are you able to shed light on this, niccoleman?

Niccoleman,likewise ,welcome,and thanks for your response; I had to wait awhile to get information/confirmation about both the Ramsgate and Margate Lifeboats being launched ` in a strong SSW breeze and rough seas` to search 10 nm NNE; no trace of aircraft or survivors was found,however the Margate LB returned with a sick seaman off the MV Fluidity at 0320 hrs,and were rewarded with £39 1s6d`.
It seems difficult to believe also that no wreckage has ever come to light,considering the wooden structure of the Proctor; of course bits may have been washed up on any coastline in the interim,on both sides of the Channel,but then considering the number of small boats and aircraft that have crashed/sunk,bits of wood/canvas are not unusual.
Nic, did your Father ever say what the aircraft owner,Mr Dawson did for business,and whether he had known GBSC in the RAF; ?

Thank you, niccoleman. Your contribution to this topic is much appreciated. If you can add any more, that will be a bonus.

Sadly there were no survivors. This was all a year before I was born so of course only hearsay. I do remember my father, his only brother, talking about the mystery of what had happened. (dad watched Bleriot fly the channel in 1909 little thinking his baby brother would ditch in it years later)

Welcome to the forum, niccoleman, and thank you for your post. Hopefully you can clear up one issue that has remained unresolved since the inception of this post, namely whether your uncle, George Coleman, met his end when G-AHWP came down in the sea off Margate or whether he survived this incident. In your post you say: “on his death his wife disappeared” but not when and in what cirucumstances his death took place. Are you able to elaborate upon this? If he did meet his end when the Proctor put down in the sea, did his passenger, Mr G.Dawson, suffer the same fate? Any further input that you can provide will be much appreciated by me and, I surmise, by sycamore.

George Byrne Coleman DFC was my uncle. Quite a character. There was some completely unfounded speculation in the family that he had made a diversion to unload some contraband but your posts on the matter make it clear that this is nonsense. He was born in 1908. On his death his wife disappeared. My father eventually found her with a pilot in the Pakistani airforce. She was last heard off in S.Africa. Her children were all adopted,we had one, Michael.