7. Percival Proctor III, LZ595

A Pair of Knitted Boots
 

On the 6th February 1945 a Percival Proctor III, LZ595, was flying around the Oswestry area on a training exercise from No. 4 Radio School at Madley in Herefordshire. The weather was cloudy and misty with very poor visibility. The aircraft seemed to be lost as it flew over to the hills surrounding a village called Trefonen to the west of Oswestry. The trainee radio operator was sending and receiving coded Morse-key messages to and from No. 4 Radio School when suddenly transmission broke up and nothing more was heard.
At around midday, near to Trefonen at Pentre Cefn, the Proctor was spotted flying through the mist by some locals. The aircraft circled around with its engines running a bit rough, then descended down to attempt a forced landing in a field. As it approached its chosen field the Proctor pulled up sharply to avoid a big Ash tree the pilot hadn’t spotted until the last second because of the mist. They got over the tree but had lost too much airspeed. It stalled and dived into the ground into an area of rabbit warrens.

One airman was thrown out by the impact the Pilot, Sgt. C. H. Gerner RAAF was trapped in the wreckage, both had been killed. Locals ran to try and help the crew but soon realised that there was nothing that could be done. The airman who was thrown out was W/OP U/T Sylvain Doucris a Fleet Air Arm airman. On the tunic of this airman was noted a French flash badge and just sticking out of his chest pocket was a small pair of child’s knitted boots, which were respectfully tucked back into the pocket.
A policeman, P.C. Dorrycot from Morda, was sent to guard the aircraft, its tail sticking up in the air, the rest nosed into the earth. Later the P.C. was relieved by a local airman Eaton-Jones who was due to go on leave that day (he did get his day back). He in turn was relieved by two airmen from RAF Rednal. During the cold nights they sneaked off to sleep in a barn close to the crash site and then returned early in the morning before anybody turned up.
The broken Proctor was loaded up onto a Farmers cart towed by a big old horse named Flower to the closest hard surface road
After about ten days all the wreckage had been cleared up. Mr Dyke the landowner of the field went down to inspect it & while there he found a padded leatherette seat cushion near to where Doucris’ body was found. This he kept for many years and used it on the seat of his tractor. Years later he sold the Tractor to another farmer, Morris Jones, with it went the cushion. Then when Morris bought a new Tractor with a padded seat he used the cushion in his barn where he produced flour for baking. There it stayed for nearly sixty years until in October 1999 I turned up investigating the crash. The cushion was kindly given to me to look after and which I still have.

I’ve had a look around the area where the Proctor crashed. After a very detailed search, not a lot was found. So it seems that the cushion was the only remaining piece from LZ 595. A lucky find it is to have survived all the harsh treatment over the years.
For those unacquainted with the Proctor, it was an aircraft built to Air Ministry requirements from a standard civil Vega Gull, with three seats instead of four and a revised cockpit for use as a radio trainer and used by the RAF and FAA from 1939 onwards.