Paul, you can exhale now, I managed to find the information. It was a Pup, not a Camel! The story was published in Aviation Archaeologist magazine Series 2 No 45 in 2004. This is the official quarterly publication for the British Aviation Archaeological Council and well worth its modest subscription. PM me if you want contact details.
A CROSS MARKS THE SPOT.
David Hanson.
In 1941,the “Aeroplane Spotter” carried the surprising news story that a Sopwith Camel, missing since 1918, had been found in a remote part of Scotland with the skeleton of its pilot still in it! Later, just after the war, the book “I Couldn’t Care Less” by former Air Transport Auxiliary pilot Anthony Phelps told of how a party of men on their way to salvage a crashed Wellington in the Grampians had stumbled across the Camel.
I wondered if there was any truth in these stories and decided to investigate. Despite the passage of time and an almost complete lack of information in RAF records and newspapers, I have found that while there were no missing Camels and pilots, there is some basis for the story.
James Harvey Hall of 228 Hornby Street, Bury, Lancashire, had joined the Royal Fusiliers in September, 1914, despite being only seventeen years old.
He was wounded in France in July, 1916, and took some time to fully recover. On being declared fit for duty, he joined the Lancashire Fusiliers, and was commissioned in March, 1918.1n June of that year, he volunteered as a pilot in the newly-formed Royal Air Force, although at he time of his death records still show him as a member of the 6th Lancashire Fusiliers. His pilot training was undertaken at the 32nd Training Depot Station at Montrose, Tayside.
On 25th August, 1918, Second Lieutenant Hall was sent for a cross-country navigation training flight in Sopwith Pup D4030 and failed to return.
To quote the subsequent Court of Inquiry report, “A heavy mist came up below him. He must have attempted to fly through it in order to find his direction when the aeroplane struck a very high hill, killing him instantaneously”. He was found at 2.00 pm on the following day. Apart from the removal of his body,and possibly some of the aircraft’s instruments, the scene was abandoned and the Pup left where it was. James Hall was buried with military honours at Redvales Cemetery in Bury on August 31st.
Twenty-two years later, Britain was once again at war with Germany, and RAF Montrose was busy training pilots, some of whom flew into the surrounding hills. On 15th December, 1940, Leading Aircraftman E.E.D. Clarke was sent on a cross-country navigation training flight in Miles Master NI602, from which he failed to return.
During ten days of searching for the aircraft, wreckage was sighted on a hillside. When the search party arrived at the scene, they were surprised to find what was identified as a Sopwith Camel. So that the “Camel” would not cause confusion in any subsequent searches, personnel of 56 Maintenance Unit were instructed to remove the wreckage. This was attempted in the spring of the following year,but abandoned due to “limited resources” and the aircraft was buried at the site.
The Pup had crashed on land belonging to Auchmull Farm in Glen Esk. When the working party crew told the farmer, Mr.William Reid , that they had buried the wreckage, Mr. Reid and his wife visited the site and erected a wooden cross. The RAF station at Edzell is just four miles from the crash site, so the 56 Maintenance Unit men would have been billeted there, and spoken to the airmen at the base, so starting the story of the missing “Camel” and its pilot.
It is probable that someone at Edzell informed the “Aeroplane Spotter” of the story.
Perhaps, at some time, Anthony Phelps called there and was told the story.I had thought that the account of the pilot’s skeleton still being in the aircraft had been made up by the 56 Maintenance Unit recovery crew, or that the story had been embellished as it was told. However, I have been told that Mr. Reid had also spoken of bones remaining in the wreckage. As he would have known that the pilot’s body had been removed at the time of the accident, and that he and his family had examined the Pup, he should have known that there were no human remains in the aircraft. Could it be that when the wreckage was being broken up to be buried some bone was found?
Although it is known that the Pup lies somewhere on Auchmull land, the site has not yet been found. Of those who knew of the location, all are now dead. However, when aviation enthusiast Alistair Skene heard that I was looking for a World War One crash site, he immediately came up with the story of the “Camel.” He thought that it had crashed to the north of Auchmull, close to the Merche Fence, in the Hill of Fingray area. This is not Auchmull land, so perhaps he may have been mistaking the site with that of Master N7602. After speaking to the gamekeeper in the area, I found only the Master.
The present owner of Auchmull knows only of aircraft wreckage on his land on East Wirren.This is probably from a Sea Fury. One of his employees, who has been there for ten years did not know of any crosses. Auchmull land covers both sides of the River Esk, so we are looking for a wooden cross, put up in 1941, somewhere within about five square miles of land. By now it may well have decayed into a short stump, so finding the site will be far from easy.
The Montrose Air Station Museum has been informed of what has been learnt. If the Pup could be found, such items as the Clerget engine would make excellent exhibits.
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