Erection date: 7/7/1999
{The plaque is divided graphically into 3 vertical sections. The central panel depicts a maple leaf and two crowned crests, the one on the left with a maple leaf at the centre and this text around the outside and below:}
No 6 Group Headquarters, Royal Canadian Air Force. Sollertia et Ingenium
{At the centre of the other crest is a lion rampant in front of a maple leaf and this text around the outside and below:}
427 Squadron, Royal Canadian Air Force. Ferte Manus Certas
{On the section to the left:}
Harmondsworth Moor
At this site on 16 September 1943, an RCAF Halifax bomber crashed on return from a mission, with the loss of all seven crew members. This memorial is to all those who served in 427 Squadron, and in 6 Bomber Group RCAF.
Dedicated on 7 July 1999 by British Airways, in association with the Community of Harmondsworth.
Halifax V.DK 253 ZL M
427 Squadron
6 Bomber Group
Royal Canadian Air Force
Based at Leeming in Yorkshire
{On the section to the right:}
United in service
F/O B. Begbie RCAF
F/O F. V. Webb RCAF
Flt/Sgt. A. Chibanoff RCAF
Sgt D. R. Coe RAF
Sgt H. W. Frost RCAF
Sgt A. R. Gaiger RAF
Sgt E. T. Potts RAF
At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.
Site: WW2 aircraft crash + Waterloo Bridge (2 memorials)
UB7, Harmondsworth Moor, Middle Meadow
The crash plaque is attached to a large chunk of granite - a piece of the John Rennie Waterloo Bridge (source: Colne Valley Park). And all around the area you will see lumps of granite from the same source, so many we could not plot and photograph them all so, as an interesting representative, we have chosen the Giant's Teeth, an art-work a short walk from the memorial. For a map showing the location of the Giant's Teeth, the crash memorial and paths, etc. see British Airway's Harmondsworth Moor.
Describing the dedication of the memorial for the crash the extremely informative website Their Last Night gives the following information: "In the late 1980s British Airways proposed the construction of their headquarters (Waterside) … {nearby} ... Part of the overall scheme was to landscape an area of some 240 acres by planting around 70,000 trees on undulating meadowland, and laying out winding footpaths, bridleways, lakes including water features, all embracing the three rivers that are part of the Chiltern drainage. During the planning stages British Airways was made aware of the Halifax incident … and they responded by initiating a memorial to the lost air crew."
