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

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by DaveB, Jul 1, 2017.

  1. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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):
     

    Attached Files:

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  2. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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.
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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  3. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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)
     
  4. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
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  5. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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
     

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    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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  6. RCG

    RCG Senior Member, Deceased

    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
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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  7. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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).
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
  8. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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.
     
  9. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    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.
     
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  10. RCG

    RCG Senior Member, Deceased

    <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.
     
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  11. RCG

    RCG Senior Member, Deceased

    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
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
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  12. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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.
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
  13. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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.
     
  14. DaveB

    DaveB Very Senior Member

    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.
     
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  15. RCG

    RCG Senior Member, Deceased

    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
     
    Last edited: Jul 2, 2017
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  16. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    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
    32858_606246_2065-00469.jpg

    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
     
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  17. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    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

    44994_adm_104_115-0252.jpg

    TD
     
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