Norman Arthur Lingard

NORMAN ARTHUR LINGARD Sgt.  RAF.VR  d. 28 March 1942  aged 27   1059599

           

NORMAN ARTHUR LINGARD was born in the first quarter of 1915. He was the son of Arthur and Betsy Lingard (née Beckett), of Worsley, who married in the middle of 1912. A memorial in the United Reformed Church on Worsley Road bears his name, together with five others who died in World War II. He was buried at St.Mark's on 1 April 1942.

 

Norman Arthur Lingard was flying a Lancaster (serial number R5501, coded EM-G) when it collided with a Miles Master (DK973) during a daylight cross-country exercise. Both aircraft crashed at 1320 hrs on Canwick Hill, just to the east of Bracebridge Heath, 2 miles South of Lincoln. The crew of four, all members of 207 Squadron, were all killed: Sgt. N. A. Lingard; Sgt. D. A. Wood; Sgt. R. W. Cox; and Sgt. T. C. Massey. The pilot of the Miles Master, Lt. J. D. Linaker was also killed.

 

The following account of the incident is recorded in chapter 5 of the book On the Wings of the Morning by Vincent Holyoak. This is a copy of the relevant chapter.

 

          For six weeks that it was stood down, 207 was busily engaged in converting on to the Lancaster. By the end of April, it could boast sixteen of the new type on strength with as many trained crews. In the meantime, the seemingly interminable circuits, night landings and cross-countries were not without their drama, with two aircraft being destroyed. The first and most tragic loss was that of 27-year-old Mancunian Sergeant Norman Lingard and his crew in Lancaster R5501 EM-G. Just after lunch on March 28, they were engaged in a daylight cross-country exercise south of Lincoln when Cranwell based Miles Master DK793 flown by a pupil pilot, Lieutenant Linaker, began to carry out a series of unauthorized feint attacks. Unauthorized aerobatics of any kind were expressly forbidden. Many a trainee had been killed showing off, and on one pass witnesses on the ground saw the Master slice into R5501’s tail section, both aircraft spinning out of control to crash on the Bracebridge Road. Lingard and fellow Sergeants Wood, Cox and Massey, along with the Master pilot were all killed instantly. Norman Lingard had already survived many operations as a second pilot and to die in such a way was particularly sad.

Researched and written by Paul R Speakman