The article below has been written by OC Chris Wheeler (H67, BH 72-08) on the unveiling of a memorial on Dartmoor to an OC and his fellow air crew who crashed there in 1942.
Flying Officer Gavin Morton SELLAR, RAFVR (P 1939)
A new memorial stands on Plaster Down on the western fringes of Dartmoor. It commemorates seven aircrew who crashed nearby in 1942, one of them an Old Carthusian. GM Sellar, born in December 1920 as the only son of James and Jean Sellar of Harpenden, was at Charterhouse from OQ 1934 to LQ 1939, and won a scholarship to Trinity College, Cambridge, before joining the RAFVR. At the end of October 1942, aged 21 and recently married, he was a Coastal Command pilot, flying Liberator FK242 of 224 Squadron on anti-submarine patrol above a convoy in the Bay of Biscay. Heading back to base at Beaulieu, the aircraft strayed off course over Plymouth and struck a barrage balloon cable, the impact evidently damaging one or more of the fuel tanks in the wings. Low on fuel, in darkness and in cloud, the Liberator made an unsuccessful attempt to divert to RAF Harrowbeer west of Yelverton, but crashed a couple of miles away on Plaster Down, between Tavistock and Horrabridge. Six of the seven crew were killed. The rear gunner, Sergeant DT Pass, though seriously injured, was rescued by Henry Walsh, a young evacuee staying at the nearby Fullamoor Farm.
Flying Officer Sellar was cremated, and is listed on a memorial close to Bournemouth Crematorium. Sergeant HO Dawe is buried in Wallasey, and Pilot Officer WA Cruickshanks in Tynemouth. The other three killed - Flying Officer VE Crowther RNZAF, Sergeant WG Fraser and Pilot Officer WB Martin - are buried in Buckland Monachorum cemetery, a few miles from Plaster Down.
In 1983 Dennis Pass returned to the farm with his wife and Henry Walsh. The gap in the hedge and bank caused by the crash had meanwhile been made into a gateway, and a plaque was placed on one of the gateposts to commemorate comrades killed over 40 years before.
Thirty years later, local historian Nigel Rendle published a magazine article describing the various war graves in the cemetery, including those of the Liberator crew. The article was read by a local retired MoD engineer, Robert Jones, who undertook further research. He contacted the families of the crew and many other interested parties (including Charterhouse), and enlisted the support of the National Park authorities in setting up a permanent memorial a short distance from the original crash site.
On 8 April 2017, a short service was conducted by the Revd Tony Vigars and Father Louis Rieunier in front of a large group of relatives and other supporters. The granite column with its new plaque was unveiled by Mrs Irene Pass, whose husband Dennis had sadly died only in February 2015. [Henry Walsh died in 2000, and at his own request his ashes were scattered nearby.] The story of the crash was recounted by retired Wing Commander Derek Straw, formerly of 224 Squadron, and a poem was read by Mrs Kay Hardy, niece of Pilot Officer Cruickshanks. One of the numerous wreaths was laid by Wing Commander Lisa D'Oliviera, RNZAF, who had come from New Zealand specially to represent Flying Officer Crowther. In the absence of close relatives, Flying Officer Sellar was represented by Chris and Ann Wheeler (ex-Brooke Hall).
Close beside the memorial runs the Grimstone and Sortridge Leat, designed centuries ago to supply water to the two manors named, and still functioning today. Sortridge Manor, less than a mile from the memorial, was in the 1940s the family home of another OC pilot, Flight Lieutenant Neville Marwood Tucker (G 1929), whose Lancaster crashed in Germany in August 1944. He is buried in Hanover, but is commemorated on a panel beside the Great War memorial in Horrabridge.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.
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With thanks to Nigel Rendle and Robert Jones
Photographs from top to bottom:
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Unveiling ceremony: Mrs Irene Pass (widow of the one survivor) seated between clergyman, Fr Louis Rieunier and the flag-covered memorial. Mrs Kay Hardy (niece of one of the crew) holding a wreath. The organiser, Rob Jones, is behind and to the left of Mrs Hardy. Wing Cdr Lisa D'Oliviera RNZAF is in uniform behind the traffic cone. Wing Cdr (retd) Derek Straw is to her left in the pale suit. Chris Wheeler is between the two clergymen in the Charterhouse 'culture colours' tie.
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Memorial plaque
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Granite column and plaque
