On BLACK THURSDAY this crew were flying in Lancaster JB1170-OF-C, C-CHARLIE. They were unable to land at Bourn and went to nearby RAF Station Graveley, where the aircraft crashed, killing all on board.
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
Flight Engineer: Sgt Charles William Collishaw
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Nottingham South Cemetery
Navigator: Sgt Samuel Joseph Peek
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in City of London & Tower Hamlets Cemetery
Bomb Aimer: Sgt Douglas Raymond Irvine
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
W/Op: Sgt Sidney George Parrott
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Liss (St Mary’s) Churchyard
Mid-Upper Gunner: Sgt Kenneth Edgar Foxcroft
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
Rear Gunner: Sgt Clifford Lionel Hope
Killed 17-Dec-43, buried in Cambridge City Cemetery
The Lancaster came down one and a quarter miles north-east of Graveley, at an unknown time. The wreckage was not found until just after seven o’clock on the morning of 17th December. After crashing, the aircraft had caught fire. There was no one to help and there were no survivors. It was the Australian pilot’s second operation; he was only twenty years old.
Above: two images of Kenneth Foxcroft at the time of his enlistment, from his Service Record; like his skipper, he was an Australian.
The photographs of Scott and Foxcroft are from the Australian National Archives
Our thanks to Kiel Almond, who sent the photographs of Sid Parrott, above, and the superb pictures of the whole crew which can be seen below.
20 July 2014, JENNIE GRAY WRITES: In twenty years of research, these are the first posed studio shots I have ever come across of an entire crew. Fortunately, on the picture in which the crew are standing, the crew signed their signatures on the back, and the signatures were numbered to show the order in which the crew were standing. The only crew member who did not sign was Sid Parrott, and presumably this is because he was the owner of this particular set of the photographs.
The studio portraits are highly unusual because almost invariably photographs of a crew are informal snapshots, usually on the airfield with their Lancaster. Perhaps the fact that so many of the crew were from overseas had something to do with this. Scott and Foxcroft were from the RAAF and Irvine and Hope were from the RCAF.
Samuel Joseph Peek
Samuel is not in the photograph above because he was a last minute replacement.
F/E: F/Sgt V.A.Davis
Nav: F/Sgt S.J.Peek
B/A: F/O L.C.Jones
W/Op: Sgt D.E.Harvey
M/U Gunner: F/Sgt J.R.Chapman
Rear Gunner: F/Sgt E.L.Wright.
It appears that the crew were on a month’s leave at the time of Black Thursday – they flew on the 3/4 December raid on Leipzig but do not appear in the ORB again until the 14/15 January 1944 raid on Brunswick.On 16/17 December 1943, for some unknown reason, Samuel was still on the station and flew with Scott on the fatal Berlin operation.
Samuel’s DFM for his tour of service was published in the London Gazette of 15th February 1944.
13 December 2017 – JENNIE GRAY WRITES: For a number of years the only photograph which we had of Samuel showed him as a boy of about 10 years old (see above).
He is with his brother and mother, standing in the centre, the taller and older of the two boys. This is a very sad picture. Samuel’s brother, Charles Frederick, also served in the war, in the Army – he was injured and sent home. However, when Samuel was killed, he felt it his duty to go back and sadly he did not make it home either. He died on 6th April 1946 of an unknown cause whilst serving with the Grenadier Guards 3rd Battalion, and is buried in Benghazi.