John Frederick Dowding Pilot Officer J/46041 Royal Canadian Air Force October 26, 1925 (Actual 1926) Sarnia, Ontario August 4, 1943 London, Ontario Sarnia, Ontario 17 (Actual 16) 5 feet, 7 inches Fair Blue Brown Single Student United Church Ivan Louis Dowding October 17, 1944 17 (Actual) Harrogate (Stonefall) Cemetery, Yorkshire, United Kingdom Sec. G. Row A. Grave 8. Pilot Officer John Frederick Dowding while training with 19 Operational Training Unit at RAF Kinross, in the north east of Scotland, was the Air Gunner on aircraft Whitley V AD 685 that departed the base in the evening of Tuesday, October 17, 1944 to carry out a five hour cross-country detail. The aircraft crashed at approximately 21:30 hours a few miles inland west of Seaham Harbour, near Durham. The aircraft passed over Seaham a height of 4,000 to 5,000 feet flying through cumulus nimbus cloud and there were reports of electrical storms. Turbulence and icing of the wings may have caused a failure of the airframe and the aircraft broke up. The two engines fell into a field and one wing came to rest against a back yard wall in Mount Pleasant, Seaham, and the other wing against the George Inn on The Avenue. All six members of the crew were killed.

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Canadian Virtual War Memorial Additional Crash Information