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

[ATTACH=CONFIG]243256[/ATTACH]

Thanks Dave, I appreciate your efforts 🙂

L/O

Greg

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

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

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

Many thanks Gikkalan – I’d seen other newspaper reports but not the one from the Gloucestershire Echo, which seems to confirm there was some element of secrecy about the mission.

All the best,

Greg

Searching the British Newspaper Archive I found a little snippet in the Gloucestershire Echo dated 20 Dec 1920 It states:

Seven men who left Holyhead for Dublin in a Handley Page aeroplane on a secret mission for the Government had a narrow escape form drowning in the Irish Sea.
The party consisted of a pilot, navigator, two mechanics, a wireless operator and two secret service officers.
Fifteen miles from Holyhead something went wrong with one of the engines and it was agreed there was no option but to send out an SOS and drop into the sea.
The message was picked up by the Elder Dempster liner Itajehy 28 miles off. The steamer made for the spot at full speed and found the aeroplane partly submerged with seven men sitting on the wings and fuselage.
Within a few minutes off the men being taken off the aeroplane sank.

The Lancashire Evening Post describes the plane as a Handley Page seaplane and confirms the names of the crew but doesn’t mention anything about it d=being a secret mission.

Morning Paul,

Thanks for the reply and clarification of the “gen”. I came across details of Aspen’s death yesterday evening, on the rafcommands forum which we both use, and added details of Aspen’s earlier ditching to the “unaccounted airmen” thread where he’s named – the link is http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?1033-Unaccounted-airmen-13-8-1940/page3 for info.

Haworth-Booth came from a well-known political family of the time, and at the time of the incident had either served, or would later serve, as a conservative MP for Banbury in Oxfordshire – I’ve got details written down here somewhere but not to hand. Details on his RAF service should be easy enough to find online, so I’m going to have a look at that later. Similarly, Williamson, with an AFC, should turn up something online. If I can pin either of them to 100, then it’s another piece in the jigsaw. The ORB for the period is woefully bereft of anything useful – the two-year period the squadron spent in Ireland is covered in just two lines!!

For your info, the Elder Dempster liner that picked them up was the “Itajahy”, a former German merchant vessel that had been requesitioned by the British after the end of WW1 as part of the capital goods that came to the victors as part of the Treaty of Versailles. I have dropped the National Maritime Museum in Liverpool an email asking if they still have the ship’s log in their archives – if they have, I doubt it’ll turn up much but there may be something in there.

I agree with your thoughts on the experience of the crew indicating something clandestine about the operation, and I’m not convinvced for a second that Holyhead was the ultimate destination – rather that was used as a “cover” after the aircraft had ditched.

Thanks again for the reply, all the best as always,

Greg