‘Forgotten’ teen hero is named on war memorial... 81 years on
A TEENAGE RAF bomber pilot killed when he crashed near his base has finally been added to a village war memorial after 81 years.
Harold Tipple died after his Fairey Battle developed engine trouble from take-off at RAF Little Rissington, Glos, in 1939.
In an accident shrouded in secrecy, the light bomber crashed at Hintlesham, Suffolk, less than 10 miles short of the rookie pilot’s base at Martlesham Heath near Ipswich.
Harold, 19, was buried in Hintlesham’s churchyard where for decades villagers cared for his grave.
But his name is only now being added to the local war memorial after local historian Gerald Main used a Freedom of Information request to unlock classified papers.
Gerald, the former editor of BBC Radio Suffolk, said “I couldn’t understand why a pilot buried in the village wasn’t commemorated.
“I was even more intrigued to find that his military records, which are held at the National Archive in Kew, were classified.
“Once I had researched into the case, the parish council agreed to add the name to the memorial. Harold Tipple has lain in Hintlesham soil for over 80 years, and that truly makes him one of ours.”
This month marks the centenary of Harold’s birth and his name has been added to the memorial in time for Armistice Day on November 11.
Harold, from Hertfordshire, joined up in the spring of 1939 and when war broke out in September he became a pilot officer with 264 Squadron at Martlesham Heath.
On December 13 he and Flight Lieutenant Nicholas “Lanky” Gresham Cooke were ordered to collect two planes from RAF Little Rissington and deliver them to their base. But Harold had no experience of flying the Fairey Battle and an eye-witness reported black smoke belching out of the rear of the plane soon after take-off.
Farm workers at Hintlesham said that as the two planes approached smoke was pouring from Harold’s which was losing height. He tried to bail out but the aircraft hit a tree.
The records of the court of inquiry were marked classified until 2030 but Gerald’s FOI request revealed the finding that the plane had been flown with the propellers at “fine pitch” or underpowered.
It said the cause of the accident “was an attempted abandoning of the aircraft by the pilot immediately after a probable seizure of the engine, due to the pilot flying from the time of the take off to the time of the crash, in fine pitch, whilst in formation with another aircraft”.
Harold’s mother declined a military headstone and bought her own.
Gerald said: “His grave was tended for many years by a lady living in the village and her granddaughter, Margaret Spraggons.
“She still remembers being brought here by her grandmother to lay flowers for the pilot’s grave.”
The headstone also commemorates Harold’s brother Robert, who died with the Army Catering Corps/ Royal Army Ordnance Corps in February 1943, and was buried in Algeria.
Flt Lt Cooke was killed in 1940 fighting over Dunkirk.