FREEMAN, Anthony Frederick Adrian
"Strong by Night"
580726
Acting Sergeant (Air Gunner)
Anthony Frederick Adrian FREEMAN
RAF 149 Squadron
Died after an air accident on 29th August 1939
Aged 18
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Born in Croydon on 6th May 1921, the son of Frederick and Ernestine Maria Amelia FREEMAN (née FLEMING) Anthony had been in the RAF for seven months, died of wounds sustained after the aircraft he was travelling in crash-landed into some trees on Forestry Commission land at Botany Bay, just inside the Norfolk border, a mile outside of Brandon, Suffolk on the evening of Tuesday 29th August 1939. Flying-Officer Francis William Scott Turner, pilot, told the Coroner that just before 5pm on Tuesday evening their bomber took off on a search for a missing aircraft. Everything seemed fine for an hour or so until the port engine caught fire and he immediately carried out the procedure for ‘fire in the air’ and prepared for a crash landing two or three miles north-east of Brandon. He then instructed the co-pilot, Sergeant Weller, to retrieve Pilot Officer Watson from the nose of the aircraft and to bring him to amidships, after which he told the rest of the crew to sit down and hang on. The aircraft then crash-landed amongst some trees. F/O Turner then told the inquest, “I picked up Pilot Officer Watson and told him to get out as quickly as possible. I looked out and was then told that Freeman was still in the machine. Walking across the wing and getting back into the machine again through a hatch, I found Freeman on his knees against a step formed by a bomb nacelle. We did not think it was advisable to move him until medical assistance had arrived. The fire had gone out by this time.” F/O Turner then told the Coroner that Freeman should have stayed where he was – it was the safest place in the aircraft and because of the location of his body he must have moved away from his seating position. Police Constable Churchyard said that the aircraft had come down 350 yards from the Weeting-Brandon road, cutting a swathe of 30 yards by 60 yards. The crew and himself had removed the tail section of the aircraft to remove Anthony and take him by ambulance to RAF Mildenhall where he died. It is not known why Newmarket was chosen for Anthony's burial The following appeared in Flight International magazine, page 228, September 7, 1939 "The Air Ministry regrets to announce the following flying accident: Acting Sgt. Anthony Frederick Adrian Freeman lost his life and P/O. Thomas Watson was severely injured in an accident which occurred in East Anglia on August 29 to an aircraft of No. 149 Squadron. P/O. Watson was a pilot of the aircraft and Acting Sgt. Freeman a member of the crew. F/O. Francis William Scott Turner, the Captain of the aircraft, and Sgt Horace James Weller, A/C.2 John Gerard Hoey, and A/C.2 Cecil George Barker, the other members of the crew, were not injured." As the accident occurred just a few days before the start of the war, Anthony's death is not recorded on the debt of honour and his headstone is a standard CWGC non war marker stone Currently it is believed the aircraft was Wellington L4214 c/s OJ-P of 149 Squadron operating from RAF Mildenhall |
© Helen Riding
