William Clark Hamilton

 

For this and lots of information I am indebted to the aircrewremembered.com website (link here)

William Clark Hamilton enlisted in the RAF Volunteer Reserve on 14th April 1939, being called up full-time from 1st September as a Leading Aircraftsman.  On his paperwork he is described as 5 feet and 7 inches tall (170cm), fair hair, blue eyes and pale complexion.

He seems to have been in various training units for a year, mainly at RAF Abbotsinch (now Glasgow Airport) finishing by being promoted to sergeant on 21st August 1940.  On 3rd September 1940, he was posted to 304 Squadron.

This Squadron had only been established a few weeks before and was based in Nottinghamshire at RAF Syerston.  It was mainly made up of Polish airman who had made their way to Britain, but all squadrons of this type included a few British crews.  It entered a period of training and together with poor weather, the squadron's first operational mission was not until 2nd May 1941.

On the 8th May 1941, William's crew was sent to attack Bremen in the north of Germany as one of a force of 133 planes.  Reviewing the squadron's records, I think this was William's first mission.  

William's plane took off at 23.08 and at some point it was hit by anti-aircraft fire - it's not clear whether they were still on their way to Bremen or were returning having bombed it.  At 02.16 it was attacked by a German fighter operating at night - we even know the name of the pilot, Reinhold Schmolinsky.  The Wellington was shot down and crashed, with only one survivor of the six man crew.

Photo credit Joachim Eickhoff via aircrewremembered.com

The other crew members were

Gavin John Lynes DFC (Flying Officer, pilot)

William Monteith Graham (Wing Commander, 2nd pilot)

Thomas Edmund Wady (Observer, Flight Sergeant)

Stanley Robert Gear DFM (Wireless operator / air gunner, Flight Sergeant)

William Clark Hamilton (Wireless operator / air gunner, Flight Sergeant))

Frank Stanley William Webb (Rear gunner, Flying Officer)

While this was only the fifth day of operational flying by 304 Squadron and this crew's first flight together, this does not mean they lacked experience - Flying Officer Lynes and Flight Sergeant Gear both had medals for bravery with previous squadrons.  A particular feature is that Wing Commander Graham had decided to go on the mission, even though his rank probably did not require it.

We have a photo of some of the crew that evening as they awaited take-off (supplied by May Wady to aircrewremembered.com):

The names Thomas Wady wrote on the back were: Gear, Taylor, Hamilton, Webb, Wady.  Note the Wellington bomber visible just over the shoulder of the first man.  Aircrewremembered.com states that Taylor was not part of the crew - maybe he was the chief mechanic for their plane?

The Wellington crashed at a village called Messingen, about 135 kilometres south-west of Bremen.  The men who died were initially buried in a communal grave at Lingen New Cemetery.  On 29th May 1947 they were reburied at the CWGC Cemetery called Reichswald Forest.  While it is a collective grave, the men have individual headstones and two of them have words added by family: "Deep in our hearts / A memory is kept / Of one we loved / And can never forget" (for Stanley Gear) and "He shall not grow old / As we that are left grow old" (for Frank Webb).

Note that the aircrewremembered team were seeking relatives of those who died who might be interested in a memorial at the crash site.  If anyone reads this, you are welcome to contact me, or you can contact the team directly via their website. 

William Clark Hamilton was born on 5^th July 1908 at 23 Exeter Drive, which is off Dumbarton Road, just to the west of the junction with Crow Road:

This map shows the area just after William was born, number 23 ringed in red.  Note the absence of the Clydeside Expressway and the Clyde Tunnel Approach Road!

His father was Thomas Buchanan Hamilton, a journeyman bricklayer.  His mother was Margaret Grant, who married Thomas in 1902.  He was their second child, his sister Margaret McDonald Hamilton being six years older.

In the 1911 Census the family had moved to a three-room tenement flat at 28 Stewartville Street, about half a mile further east along Dumbarton Road, one over from Hyndland Street.  Thomas was still a bricklayer but this time we have the added information that he worked in a shipyard.

Ten years later, Thomas was a foreman in a Glasgow Corporation Depot.  William was still at school, but his sister was a 'clerkess' at William Tomlinson and Co., leather manufacturer.

I cannot find anything about William's life as an adult or where he lived.

In the 1940 Valuation Roll, Thomas B Hamilton lives on Dumgoyne Drive, in Mosshead.  There is no street number, only "Plot 23" but this is not very helpful as the plot numbers include Bailie Drive:

William's sister, Margaret, died unmarried in the Dunoon area in 1982.