Frederick Popham's Story.
Frederick Popham Deshon was born on 29th August 1916 in Brisbane Australia to parents Arthur Popham and Violet Brenda Deshon. He studied at Brisbane Grammar School and Queensland University and in 1939 he joined the Citizen Military Force (CMF) as a private. He also spent time working as a clerk at Brisbane Taxation Office. On 13th July 1940 he married Betty Phyllis Penny and they went on to have 2 sons, the first, John being born in May 1941 and the second, Robert being born after he left for the United Kingdom. On 18th July 1942 Frederick enlisted in the RAAF and completed his training as a Navigator in Australia before embarking for the UK in May 1943. Following his arrival in UK he was posted to 9 (O) AFU on 7th September 1943 then to 27 OTU on 12th October 1943 for operation training. On 21st January 1944 Frederick was killed along with 5 other Australian crew when their Wellington bomber serial BJ652 crashed into high ground. Frederick was buried at Blacon Cemetery and is memorialized on the Brisbane Grammar School Honour Roll and Brisbane Taxation Office honour roll. He is also honoured on a memorial plaque dedicated to the crew of BJ652 located near the crash site.The Loss of BJ652
The crew of 6 Australians were flying a 3.5 hour night cross country flight from RAF Church Broughton near Derby, a satellite to No.27 OTU’s main base at Lichfield. Their route, covering nearly 500 miles, was Church Broughton – Haverhill (Suffolk) – Pocklington (East Yorkshire) – Goole (East Yorkshire) – Bury St Edmunds (Suffolk) – Melton Mowbray (Rutland) and return to Church Broughton. Originally their route was to have taken them as far north as Peebles in the Scottish borders but expected bad weather meant this leg was removed from the plan.
Initially the crew were not assigned to fly BJ652, but their primary aircraft (coded K) was declared as unserviceable due to an oil leak so they switched to BJ652. The W/T equipment that was fitted to BJ652 was also faulty and this had to be repaired before the crew could depart. This delayed their take off from a planned 17:30 until 20:17.
The flight then proceeded normally with the the first legs of the flight being recorded in the W/T log on board the aircraft. At 21:40 Lichfield transmitted a message instructing the crew to return by 23:00 as the weather front affecting Scotland was expected to arrive across northern England around 23:30. At around the same time the crew had recorded their position as 2 miles East of Gainsborough on the north bound leg to Pocklington.
At around 21:55, with the aircraft in the Goole area, the crew turned for base. Approximately 15 minutes later an aircraft that was presumed by the RAF to be BJ652 was observed by the Royal Observer Corps positions on the edge of Sheffield and at Baslow heading in a South Westerly direction at about 2,000 feet.
Shortly after this the aircraft crashed at Smerril a few miles SW of Bakewell, the aircraft had flown into a rock outcrop and was completely destroyed
The Court of Inquiry concluded that the aircraft was approximately on course and that the flight was proceeding normally with the crew regularly obtaining radio position fixes with QDMs from various stations, including one from Lichfield a minute before the crash. They were always close to on course, even at the time of the crash. The low altitude of the aircraft was put down to the pilot knowing that they were approaching the base and began to descend but may also have had a faulty altimeter. The change in air pressure that had occurred during the flight would have meant the altimeter would have over read by some 90 feet. All 6 crew members on board the aircraft were killed instantly when it crashed. They were:
Lloyd George Edmonds Flight Sergeant RAAF Pilot
Frederick Popsham Deshon Flight Sergeant RAAF Navigator
James Kydd Flight Sergeant RAAF Air Bomber
William Thomas Barnes. Flight Sergeant RAAF Wireless Operator
Keith Jobson Perrett. Flying Officer RAAF Air Gunner
Thomas Dudley Murton Sergeant RAAF Air Gunner
Frederick with other prefects at Brisbane Grammar School
Frederick with his first son John
Brisbane Telegraph news article
Memorial plaque at crash site
Crash site
Brisbane Grammar School Roll of Honour
Brisbane Taxation Office Memorial
Research by Steve Merrill