Derek Charles Gray Clinkard

Forenames

Derek Charles Gray AWMM

Surname

Clinkard AWMM

Also known as

Clink AWMM

Service number

39855 AWMM

Gender

Male AWMM

Birth

19 Apr 1915 AWMM

Next of kin

• WW2 Wife: Mrs. Z. Haigh of Gainsborough, England AWMM
• WW2 Parents: Mr. & Mrs. C. H. Clinkard, 28 Peakes Road, St. John' Hill, Wanganui AWMM

Relationship status

Married/WWII AWMM

War

World War II, 1939-1945 AWMM

Campaign

Europe (Air) AWMM

Armed force / branch

Air Force AWMM

Service number

39855 AWMM

Promotions/ Postings/ Transfers

Royal Air Force, No. 61 Squadron AWMM

Medals and Awards

• 1939-1945 Star AWMM
• Air Crew Europe Star AWMM
• Defence Medal AWMM
• War Medal 1939-1945 AWMM
• New Zealand War Service Medal AWMM

Military training

No.7 Flying Training School AWMM

Embarkation details

WW2 Royal Air Force AWMM

Medical notes

Killed on Air Operations, Cause of Death AWMM

Last rank

Flying Officer (Pilot)/Military AWMM
Royal Air Force, No. 61 Squadron AWMM

Death

8 Mar 1940 AWMM
Age  24 AWMM

Place of death

Crash near Digby near Lincoln

Public - Annette - Other relative - 20 April 2022 - Source: http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/61sqn/61sqn_crash.htm?fbclid=IwAR0X7g4uGjfRv584AwDufj8m4CHQhV0Y029mXvfhow3v3YTnE2XcdFTc0Fg

Cause of death

• Killed on Air Operations AWMM
• Accidental death - plane he was piloting crashed
  Public - Annette - Other relative - 20 April 2022 - source: http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/61sqn/61sqn_crash.htm?fbclid=IwAR0X7g4uGjfRv584AwDufj8m4CHQhV0Y029mXvfhow3v3YTnE2XcdFTc0Fg

Death notes

At 20:18 on 7th March 1940 his Handley Page Hampden Mk1 bomber, number L4111, went on an 'offensive patrol' to attack the Luftwaffe base at Sylt, one of the German Frisian Islands.

The plane suffered severe damage during the raid and the crew struggled to bring it home. At 02:00 they were plotted as just off the English coast but no requests for bearings were made until 3 hours later. They flew up and down the coast but enemy action and mist over the whole of England stopped them trying to land.

They managed to get as far as RAF Digby near Lincoln. The usual method of landing was to perform a left hand turn but, perhaps due to rudder problems, they had to attempt a right hand turn. The airfield's lights were not put on and, in the darkness, at 5:30am the plane crashed into a nearby field.

They were the first aircrew of 61 Squadron to be lost in the war. His comrades were Sergeant Charles Carlile Hobbs, Sergeant Ronald Philips Glasson (aged 19) and Leading Aircraftman Winston Kitchener Wood (aged 20).
Due to the unknown extent of their difficulties, no recommendations were made for posthumous decoration. It is probable that they had been engaged by the enemy because the body of LAC Wood, the wireless operator, had sustained gunshot wounds

Public - Annette - Other relative - 20 April 2022 - source:
http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/61sqn/61sqn_crash.htm?fbclid=IwAR0X7g4uGjfRv584AwDufj8m4CHQhV0Y029mXvfhow3v3YTnE2XcdFTc0Fg

Cemetery

Scotter Cemetery, Lincolnshire, England AWMM Sec. B. Row D. Grave 38. AWMM

Obituary

AIR FORCE FATALITY

FLYING OFFICER D. CLINKARD

Flying-Officer Derek Charles Gray Clinkard is reported by the Air Ministry to have been killed in air operations on the Bth. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. C. H. Clinkard, Wanganui. A cable received by his parents from the Air Ministry stated that Flying-Officer Clinkard was reported to have lost his life "as the result of air activity. The Air Council expresses profound sympathy.

Flying-Officer Clinkard was a grandson of Mr' C. IT. Clinkard, late M.P. for Rotorua, and a nephew of Mr. C. T. Clinkard, of Tauranga.

Attached to Number 61 Bombing Squadron, Flying-Officer Clinkard took part in the major of the R.A.F. since the, war began. He was in flights ever Heligoland and Wilhelmshaven and Germany. He left New Zealand by the Port Bowen in February, 1937, and obtained a short service commission on his arrival in England.

He married in England a short time before the war began.

Public - Annette - Other relative - 20 April 2022 - Source:
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/BOPT19400315.2.10

Memorial name

• Scotter War Memorial, Lincolnshire, England AWMM
• Scotter Cemetery, Scotter, West Lindsey District, Lincolnshire, England
  Plot: Sec. B. Row D. Grave 38.
  
  The headstone reads:
  
  To the dear memory of / my beloved husband
  F/O Derek Charles Gray Clinkard,
  Of Wanganui, New Zealand
  Died on Active Service March 1940, / Aged 25 years.
  
  “To count the light of battle good,
  and dear the land that gave you birth,
  and dearer yet the brotherhood
  that binds the brave of all the Earth.”
  -Newbold
  
  A Son of the Southern Cross
  
  Note: In June 1954 his mother trav
  Public - Annette - Other relative - 20 April 2022 - Sources:
  https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/19455236/derek-charles_gray-clinkard
  
  http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/61sqn/61sqn_crash.htm?fbclid=IwAR0X7g4uGjfRv584AwDufj8m4CHQhV0Y029mXvfhow3v3YTnE2XcdFTc0Fg

Related objects

External links

• Commonwealth War Graves Commission record
  https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2358968/derek-charles-gray-clinkard/
  Further Reference
• RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Biographies of Deceased Personnel 1939 - 1945 (Bound Volumes) - Bo - Cl. Archives New Zealand (R17845608)
  https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R17845608
  Sources Used
• List of RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Personnel - List of Personnel Killed or Missing in Various Theatres, 1940 - 1945. Archives New Zealand (R17845744)
  https://collections.archives.govt.nz/web/arena/search/#/entity/aims-archive/R17845744
  Sources Used
• "Absent Friends", Letter from Egypt' in Salient magazine, Vol. 4, No. 8, 16 July, 1941.
  http://nzetc.victoria.ac.nz/tm/scholarly/tei-Salient04081941-t1-body-d1.html
  Further Reference

References

• Martyn, E. (1998-2008). For Your Tomorrow (Vols. 1-3). Christchurch, N.Z.: Volplane Press.
• Information kindly provided by family
• The parting of the ways : a souvenir record of the triumphs, tribulations and maritime musings of returning draft H.M.N.Z.T No. 217, 'Zealandic'. January 18th, 1919 to February 26th, 1919.
• RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Biographies of Deceased Personnel 1939 - 1945 (Bound Volumes) - Bo - Cl. Archives New Zealand (R17845608) - Former archives reference: AIR118
• Please note that the 11 volumes of the "RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Biographies of Deceased Personnel 1939-1945" held at Archives NZ (formerly known as AIR118) should be used in conjunction with Errol Martyn's "For Your Tomorrow". FYT reflects detailed examination of all of the AIR118 bios which contain many inaccuracies and omissions.
• List of RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Personnel - List of Personnel Killed or Missing in Various Theatres, 1940 - 1945. [(New Zealanders Attached to R.A.F. [Royal Air Force]) (Officers), (Europe) - Airmen]. Archives New Zealand (R17845744)
• List of RNZAF [Royal New Zealand Air Force] Personnel - List of Deceased New Zealanders (Formerly) serving with RAF [Royal Air Force]. Archives New Zealand, Wellington (R17845760).