Air crash expert uncovers local link
IN GREECE, WRECK DIVER FOUND A REMINDER OF HOME
FOR many years Jim Corbett has investigated the North East sites of scores of air crashes, many of them wartime losses.
And while on a family holiday in Greece, Jim continued his interest by diving on what is left of the wreck of a British aircraft shot down in the Second World War.
What he found was to set him off on a search mission when he returned to his home in Bellingham in Northumberland.
For Jim found that the observer of the lost Bristol Beaufighter aircraft was a Tynesider.
What is more, Flt Sergt John Shaw, who was 21 when he died when his plane crashed into the sea, went to the same school as Jim in Newcastle.
Jim is a member of the Air Crash Investigation and Archaeology Group, researching and recording historic aircraft accidents in Northern England and Southern Scotland, and other sites across the UK.
He is also a co-author of the book “Air Crash Northumberland”, which includes details of the aircraft involved, biographies of the pilots and aircrew where possible, likely cause of the accidents, and what was found when the group’s members worked on the crash sites.
“Over the years my team of fellow researchers have helped many families learn the true story of how their loved ones lost their lives whilst serving their country during the Second World War,” said Jim, who runs Corbridge Computing, based in the Northumberland village.
“When I go on holiday I always check to see if there is anything related to the war I can visit,” he said.
At his holiday destination this year in Kefalonia in Greece, Jim learned of the crash site of a Bristol Beaufighter just off shore and that a local diving team led beginner dives to the location.
Owner Cedric Georges and his team from Fiskardo Divers took Jim and his son to the wreck and also to the seabed marble memorial to John Shaw and the pilot Harold Yorke, who had survived only to become a prisoner of war.
Cedric has a display of items from the wreck at his diving base, and an information board about the aircraft.
The family of pilot Harold Yorke visited the crash site when the memorial was unveiled last year.
“Sadly, Cedric has been unable to trace any surviving relatives of John Shaw. After the dive I promised Cedric that I would look into tracing any surviving relatives when I returned home,” said Jim.
What he discovered was that John Shaw had attended Rutherford Grammar School in Newcastle, which became Rutherford Comprehensive, where Jim was a pupil.
“You couldn’t make it up. It was as if I was destined to find out more about his family,” said Jim.
Now he is hoping to track down any relatives of John.
“They may not be aware of the circumstances of his death, nor that a memorial exists to him. John’s body was never recovered,” said Jim.
His research has revealed that in July 1944, the Beaufighter two-man crew of John Shaw and Harold Yorke was part of a sweep along the Aegean sea, which involved an attack on the harbourcrashedHit by intoof anti-aircraftFiskardo.the sea. fire, the plane
Jim learned that the aircraft had remained intact until the 1960s when it was mainly salvaged for scrap.
“Even today, in some of the more rural parts, pieces of the aircraft are still being utilised in domestic appli- ances such as pots and pans,” said Jim. His search has shown that John was the son of plumber Arthur Shaw and Jane Eleanor Smith and that he was born in Tynemouth in 1922. In the 1930s the family were living in Fenham and later Benwell in Newcastle. Jim said: “It would be great to trace any surviving relatives of John.”