Beamsley Beacon air crash: Memorial held for killed Canadians

A memorial to the servicemen was erected on Beamsley Beacon in 2015

A former air cadet has marked the 75th anniversary of a Lancaster bomber crash that killed four Canadian servicemen at a Yorkshire landmark.

The plane was on a training exercise when it crashed on Beamsley Beacon near Ilkley in low cloud on 5 November 1945.

One of the survivors managed to walk to a nearby farm to call for help, and he and three others were rescued.

Sam White walked to the site to lay a wreath after lockdown forced him to cancel plans for a memorial event.

He hopes the larger scale event can take place when restrictions have been eased.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Langbar at the foot of Beamsley Beacon, was instrumental in the installation of a memorial plaque to the airmen, installed on a trig point at Beamsley in 2015.

He became interested in the crash after reading about other wartime crashes in the local area, in nearby Ilkley and Addingham, West Yorkshire.

"The other ones had plaques and this one didn't, so I thought I'd do something about that," he said.

The men killed were from 429 Squadron from the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), based at RAF Leeming in Northallerton, a squadron Mr White has since forged links with on a visit to Canada in 2017.

Who were the men on board?

Pilot Flying Officer Walter Fred Conley on his wedding day

Those who died were:

• Pilot - F/O Walter Conley, 25, of Winnipeg

• Flight Engineer - F/Sgt Arnold Stinson, 20, of Harriston, Ontario

• Bomb Aimer - F/O Wallace Ewing Lang, 22, of Sarnia, Ontario

• Passenger/Aero Instrument Mechanic - Cpl William John Ellis, 30, of Peterborough, Ontario.

The survivors were:

• Navigator - F/O Alan Price Coleman, of Magrath, Alberta, who was seriously injured

• Flight Engineer - F/Sgt Francis John Moran, St Catharines, Ontario, also seriously injured

• Passenger - LAC Reginald Embree Henderson, of Drum Head, Nova Scotia, who was very seriously injured

• Wireless Operator/Air Gunner - Sgt Joseph Patrick Belanger, who was injured and the one who called for help.

Mr White had planned a memorial with members of the RAF and RCAF present, including readings about the men and a blessing from the chaplain of the Air Cadet Squadron in Ilkley.

He said: "The sad thing is, at the time of the crash, the war was over. They were probably weeks away from heading back home.

"It would have been such a milestone anniversary, it's such a shame.

"It's deflating with all the hard work that's gone into it, but as soon as Covid hit in March, I knew things weren't looking great, and in the summer I knew it wasn't going to go ahead."

The four men who died were buried in Harrogate's Stonefall Cemetery, which has since planted maple trees to mark the number of Canadian servicemen buried there.

There are maple trees in the cemetery in Harrogate where the victims were buried

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