Galloway hills claim plane and passengers
A DAILY Express aeroplane crashed in the Galloway hills killing both passengers and both crew on February 2nd, 1937.
The A De Havilland DH90 Dragonfly, bound for Speke airport, had taken off from Renfrew airport carrying Major Harold Pemberton (son of novelist Max Pemberton) and his photographer, 22 year-old Reginald Wesley who were on an assignment to assess the upcoming changes in civil aviation routes, but when they failed to appear at Speke airport, RAF search teams headed out to look for the Dragonfly.
Unfortunately, one of the search planes also crashed but no one was injured.
The search proved fruitless until two days later when a shepherd living in the Galloway Hills heard on the wireless that a plane had gone missing.
He remembered hearing the sound of an engine in the skies above the hills some days previously and went off on a hopeful search up Darnaw, one of the peaks in the hills.
There he discovered the plane and its four bodies, including the two crew members, Leslie Jackson and Archibald Phillpot.
He cycled the 16 miles to Newton Stewart to inform the police and the town mourned the tragic deaths by lining the streets as the bodies were brought down from the hillside.
An enquiry at Kirkudbright court took place and it became apparent that Jackson had intended to fly over the Clyde and allow Wesley to take some photographs.
Once back on course, the Dragonfly would have been above Clatteringshaws Loch. It was believed that Jackson may have mistaken this loch for the Solway Firth, and so descended to allow him to follow the shoreline in the murky weather conditions.
Clatteringshaws was not on the map at that point as it was a new reservoir, and if Jackson had believed it to be the Firth, he would not have been prepared for the surrounding hillside and in the weather conditions, it was likely he could not see them.
The Daily Express paid for a memorial to be placed at the top of Darnaw. Hundreds of people attended the ceremony where a lone piper played 'Flowers of the Forest' and a local aeroplane dipped in salute.
The memorial remains on Darnaw to this day.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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