Commonwealth burials in Hawaii (Book look-up for “Send Her Victorious” by Lt-Commander Michael App)

Currently on holidays and took the opportunity to visit the resting places of a few British casualties

First off, a couple of general shots of the Punchbowl cemetery (Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of The Pacific):

 

Major Barton-Tales, Ronald 155697 Royal Corps of Signals (Casualty Details)

Date of Death: 26/07/1944

Grave Reference: Sec. Q. Grave 1335

No family details on his CWGC reference, however, his name appears on a couple of virtual Canadian remembrance sites.

There is an Ancestry link which might offer further details on how he died (see next post). "Notes on Ronald Barton-Tales Military Service, and his death, from his Nephew David Barton" Public Family History Content from davidhbarton


Also appearing on his grave marker is the name Frederick F Gundrum Jr (Civilian) who was killed in the same aircraft crash.

 

Pacific Wrecks


C-87-CF Liberator Express Serial Number 41-11706 - crashed north of Gaeta village on Florida Island on a jungle hilltop roughly 200' from the top of the ridge


Pilot Flight Captain Hugh W. Prince (KIA, BR)
Co-Pilot Frederick F. Gundrum Jr. (KIA, BR)
Engineer Willard L. Churchill (KIA, BR)
Navigator Eddie B. Hult (KIA, BR)
Radio J "Arthur" Strumph (KIA, BR) NY
Clerk Pfc William A. Staley, 13170733 (KIA, BR) Pittsburgh, PA
Passenger Air Commodore Isaac John Fitch, RAF, 22162 (KIA, BR) Bedfordshire, UK
Passenger Lt. Col. John C. Pearson, 44527 Royal Artillery, 127 Lt. A.A. Regt. (KIA, BR) Surrey, UK
Passenger Major Ronald R. Barton-Tates, 155697 British Army, Royal Corps of Signals (KIA, BR)
Passenger Lt. Col. Paul H. Berkowitz, O-19375 U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (KIA, BR) PA
Passenger Lt. Col. Euliss L. Duggan O-363515 USAAF (KIA, BR) TN
Passenger Col. Charles P. Burnett Jr., O-306508 General Staff Corps (KIA, BR) Seattle, WA
Passenger 1st Lt. Stephen J. Maliszewski, O-1294336 (KIA, BR)
Passenger 2nd Lt. William P. Foil, O-521735 (KIA, BR) LA
Passenger Capt. Herbert R. Gore, O-510365 (KIA, BR)
Passenger Capt. John S. Ingraham, O-916676 1551 AAF Base Unit USAAF (KIA, BR) WA
Passenger Maj. Morton L. Talley Jr., O-336771 (KIA, BR)

 

Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Oahu Island

Casualty Details

Air Mechanic (E) 1st Class Hagar, Douglas Alban FX79158 Royal Navy H.M.S. Victorious


Date of Death: 03/04/1943


Grave Reference: Plot 163A. Sec. 2


Additional Information: Son of William and Elizabeth May Hagar, of Oxford, England.

(Info provided below by RCG shows that he died from a Cerebral haemorrhage as a result of injuries during a fight)

Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, April 1943

3 April 1943 – HMS Victorious

HAGAR, Douglas A, Air Mechanic (A) 1c, FAA/FX 79158, killed

 

Oahu Cemetery, Honolulu, Oahu Island

Casualty Details

Casualty Details


Sub-Lieutenant (A) Highland, Reginald Edgar Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve H.M.S. Victorious


Additional Information: Son of Edgar Robert and Ethel Phyllis Highland, of Portswood, Southampton, Hampshire, England.



Sub-Lieutenant (A) Smith, Kenneth Roberts Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve H.M.S. Victorious


Additional Information:Son of George Roberts and Amy Smith, of Scunthorpe, Lincolnshire, England.



Date of Death: 08/04/1943


Grave Reference: Plot 163A. Sec. 2


Royal Navy casualties, killed and died, April 1943

8 April 1943 - FAA, 832 Sqn, HMS Victorious, air crash

HIGHLAND, Reginald E, Ty/Act/Sub Lieutenant (A), RNVR, killed

SMITH, Kenneth R, Ty/Sub Lieutenant (A), RNVR, killed

 

Ronald Barton-Tales (1913-1944)
He was born on 16 August 1913 in Toronto, Canada where his parents Charles and Alice (born Slater) had moved from England two years before. Three years later on November 20 1916 his father, a stretcher bearer in the 75th Battalion of the Canadian Infantry, was killed near Albert in the Battle of the Somme.

In his unpublished novel ‘Calculated Murder’ Ron wrote:
The arm buckled, the face fell to the mud. Around him was still the noise of battle. A man was dead. Home in England a boy of four awoke from sleep screaming. His eyes were terrified and staring. Nothing it seemed to his frightened mother would comfort him. Two days later his mother knew why he had screamed.

The widowed mother and the four remaining children (Alice Ellen had died of pneumonia in May 1915) Ivy, Charles, Ronald and Arthur Kitchener returned to Brighton in Sussex. Ron went to Elmsgrove School, leaving aged fourteen to work as an accounts clerk for a firm of upholsterers. He took evening classes at Brighton Technical College and also, in 1938, joined the Territorial Army, the part-time support service to the regular army.

On 21 July 1938 he married Eva Constance Peacock, the daughter of a mariner; they lived in Rottingdean, overlooking the South Downs and close to the sea.

As a Territorial, he was called up for military service in August 1939, just before war broke out. Initially with the Royal Artillery, he was soon identified as being suitable material for officer training and was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Sussex Regiment on 8 November 1940.

In April 1942 he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Signals to perform special duties in cipher work, first in the Special Communications Unit with the Middle East General Headquarters based in Cairo and then with the Eighth Army HQ in North Africa. By now a Major, in February 1944 he was recalled to Bletchley Park (the home of the Government Code and Cipher School, where the Axis Enigma and other ciphers were decoded) for briefing and training, in order to be the GCCS’s representative at the Central Bureau Brisbane, Australia.

On 26 July 1944 his plane crashed in Hawaii on its journey to the Far East. He is buried in the National Cemetery, Oahu Island, Hawaii. The report of the accident indicated that ‘the plane hit the hill in flight: the pilot became disoriented, descended too low. ‘

Ron and Eva had had no children; she married Charles K Kerr, a Canadian, in 1945 and moved with him to Canada, living initially in Chilliwack, British Columbia.

Frederick F Gundrum Jr

• Birth: September 2, 1917 (2 Sep 1917) - United States

• Death: July 26, 1944 (26 Jul 1944) - Honolulu, Hawaii

• Parents: Doctor Frederick Fretageot Gundrum, Elizabeth "Bessie" Adams

 

Sapper R. T. Jackson Royal Engineers 231766


Age 18


Date of death – 8th of September 1956

The link provided by RCG below shows that the graves used to be a lot cleaner / clearer and therefore much easier to read the inscriptions. Still no clue as to how he died and ended up buried in Hawaii - I have tried Google with no result & I can't see anything in the Australian newspapers of the day mentioning an incident in Hawaii (the Aussie newspaper archive is easiest to search).

 

Thanks RCG

A slight error in the nephew's account regarding the site of the aircraft crash, it was lost on a small island in the southwest Pacific Ocean and he was later buried in Hawaii - the aircraft did not crash there. But depending on where he initially got his info from it would be an easy assumption to make, that he was buried where the aircraft was lost.


I wonder if the widow marrying a Canadian and moving there is the reason his name shows up on the online Canadian memorials??



The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a state in the southwest Pacific Ocean.


The chain is composed of the two main islands, Nggela Sule to the north and Nggela Pile to the south and a number of smaller islands, including Tulagi, Gavutu and Tanambogo. The name Florida Island is sometimes also used to refer to Nggela Sule.

 

On 9 March, 1953, Charles Kenneth Kerr of Chilliwack, aged 43, a bookkeeper at Buckerfield's Ltd shot himself in the heart. The informant was his wife, the former Eva Constance Peacock.

 

<The Nggela Islands, also known as the Florida Islands, are a small island group in the Central Province of Solomon Islands, a state in the southwest Pacific Ocean.>
For some reason the quote thing is not working for me.

DaveB. Yes that also makes sense as to why they were all buried in Hawaii. The plane was possibly going to land at the airfield (to refuel) which is now Honiara international Airport. (on the Biggest island better known as Guadalcanal) 1326 miles from Brisbane and 3577 miles from Hawaii. As these island were in American hands then the bodies would be returned possible by a ship going back to Pearl Harbor.

 

R. T. Jackson (1938 - 1956) - Find A Grave Memorial


Name:Douglas Alban Hagar
Birth Date: 11 May 1919
Birth Place: Cheltenham, Glos.
Death Date: 3 Apr 1943
Death Age:23
Cerebral haemarrge as a result of injuries during a fight

Reginald Edgar highland.
Lieut Reginald Edgar Highland (1923 - 1943) - Find A Grave Memorial

K Smith.
https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=36202059&ref=acom
HMS Victorious, British fleet aircraft carrier, WW2

Not forgetting 1918.

Name: John Gemmell

Age:10

Estimated birth year: abt 1891

Relationship: Son

Father's name: Hugh Gennell

Mother's name: Hannah Gemmell

Where born: Sorn, Ayrshir
County: Ayrshire

Address:Holm View Cottage

Occupation: Schola

Household Members:

Name Age

Hugh Gennell 37


Hannah Gennall 35

John Gemmell 10

Charles Gemmell

John Gemmell ( - 1918) - Find A Grave Memorial

 

Thanks RCG - I have updated a few of my posts using info that you have provided here.

(What was the source for the cause of death for Airman Hagar?)


Still no clue on what happened with Sapper Jackson.

 

Still nothing more concrete on this loss - which aircraft or crash location or cause of crash. I surmised that it was an Avenger that they crashed in but as these were literally brand new in the RN inventory I would have thought that an aircraft write-off would be easy to find info on. They could have been flying a Martlet aircraft belonging to another FAA squadron on the Victorious; or even a USN aircraft as they learned their tactics etc.

8 April 1943 - FAA, 832 Sqn, HMS Victorious, killed in air crash - HIGHLAND, Reginald & SMITH, Kenneth


When HMS Victorious slipped out of Norfolk Navy Yard in February 1943 she was carrying a total of 52 aircraft: 36 Martlet IVs in 882, 896 and 898 Squadrons, as well as 16 freshly delivered TBF Avengers of 832 Squadron.


Victorious’ 832 Squadron Albacores had flown off the carrier on January 1, 1943, and landed at Norfolk Naval Air Station. Here the biplanes became the object of much derision.


Once HMS Victorious arrived at Pearl Harbor on March 4, 1943, her air group was flown off to Ford Island for further working-up exercises with USN counterparts.

 

I think I have it:

Grumman TBF-1 Avenger 06103 loaned to Royal Navy Jan 2, 1943. Collided with F4U (believed 02311 of VMR-222) at Pearl Harbor Apr 8, 1943. 2 crew in TBF killed.


Or an outside chance it was this loss:

Vought OS2U-3 Kingfisher 5633 (VN4D8) in landing accident Apr 8, 1943. Royal Navy pilot killed.

 

Still no clue on what happened with Sapper Jackson.
Wonder if he was involved with the construction of the airfield here?

Malden Island. 1,776 miles south of Pearl Harbor.
British nuclear testing
In 1956 the United Kingdom selected Malden as the "instrumentation site" for its first series of thermonuclear (H-bomb) weapons tests, based at Kiritimati (Christmas Island). British officials insisted that Malden should not be called a "target island". Nevertheless, the bombing target marker was located at the south point of the island and three thermonuclear devices were detonated at high altitude a short distance offshore in 1957. The airstrip constructed on the island by the Royal Engineers in 1956–57 remained usable in July 1979.
Malden Island - Wikipedia

 

England & Wales, National Probate Calendar (Index of Wills and Administrations), 1858-1966, 1973-1995
Name: Robert Trevor Jackson
Death Date: 8 Sep 1956
Death Place: Middlesbrough
Probate Date: 22 Nov 1956
Registry: York, England


R. T. Jackson in the U.S., Find A Grave Index, 1600s-Current
Name: R. T. Jackson
Birth Date: 1938
Death Date: 8 Sep 1956
Cemetery: O'ahu Cemetery
Burial or Cremation Place: Honolulu, Honolulu County, Hawaii, United States of America
Has Bio?: N
URL: http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-...

Hope it moves you a little closer to your answer
TD

 

Highland & Smith are both on the same page as it seems their aircraft collided

UK, British Army and Navy Birth, Marriage and Death Records, 1730-1960
Name: R. E Highland
Event: Death
Death Date: 8 Apr 1943
Death Place: Pearl Harbor Oakes
Ship: Victorious

Name: K. R Smith
Event: Death
Death Date: 8 Apr 1943
Death Place: Pearl Harbor Oakes
Ship: Victorious



TD