Date: 1st June 1944
Time: 02.53 hrs.
Unit: No. 44 Squadron R.A.F.
Type: Avro Lancaster Mk. I
Serial No. ME794
Code: KM - V
Location: Edge of R.A.F. Westcott, A41 road, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Flight Sergeant: R. Oswald
Sergeant: J. R. Hurley
Flight Sergeant: A. R. Shoebottom R.C.A.F.
Flight Sergeant: T. W. White
Warrant Officer: A. J. Richardson
Sergeant: L. J. H. Hutchinson
Sergeant: R. H. Sergeant
The Aircrew Remembrance Society would like to thank Mike Harrison for further details supplied regarding this crash. Also Mr Bill Clapp for supplying the photo of this stained glass window - simply superb - thank you both.
REASON FOR LOSS:
From Westcott ORB
Lancaster V Victor, landed on runway 07 from the south-west. It's approach was high and fast and as a result of this, it ran off the end of the runway, crossed the main A41 Aylesbury to Bicester road, and crashed in a field beyond where it burst into flames. The fire in the Lancaster, which still had 13,000 lbs of bombs on board was not sufficiently serious to stop the crew from abandoning the aircraft without injury, but it rapidly went out of control. (A witness who was a 12 year old boy at the time of this incident, said that the fire went out of control because the emergency vehicles had attempted to follow the path of the Lancaster, but had become caught up in the coiled barbed wire at the edge of the airfield.) The ORB also states that the Wireless Direction Finding hut (which was located in the field near to the burning Lancaster) was evacuated, as was the Control Office except for the Duty Flying Control Officer. It also records that F/L Bulmer proceeded to the scene of the accident to supervise clearance of the area. The next entry in the ORB is very short and terse "03.30 Bombs exploded in V" This is followed by a further entry: "05.10 Per Station Sick Quarters. Notified that all crew were accounted for and were OK, but that No. 97193 F/L E. C. Bulmer, Flying Control Officer, was killed when bombs exploded.
Witness statement.
F/L Bulmer had succeeded in evacuating the occupants of two nearby cottages and was about to take shelter himself when he was killed. He was then in the garden of one of the cottages, the roof of which was demolished when it was struck by an engine from the Lancaster. (The repairs to the roof of this cottage are still discernible today.)
F/L Bulmer was aged 36, a graduate of Cambridge University where he had been a Classics scholar, he left a widow and two sons, one who became a Member of Parliament and Chairman of the family company. A third son was born some time after the officers death. A stained glass memorial window in St. Marys Church, Westcott bears the inscription: " In grateful memory of Edward Charles Bulmer, Flight Lieutenant RAF Aged 36, who on June 1st 1944 gave his life in saving others by warning of an expected bomb explosion". "Requiescat in Pace".
Still surviving, a 500 Ilb exploded bomb casing photographed in field opposite side of main Aylesbury/Bicester road.
Burial details:
Crew survided this crash. However Fl/Lt 67193 Edward Charles Bulmer R.A.F.V.R. is buried at Hereford Cemetery. St. Nicholas Plot. Grave 255
