Derbyshire, Donovan Emmerson (D.E.) Photo
Rank Pilot Officer, Air Bomber
Service # J/883396, R129897
Unit # R.C.A.F., 419 Sqdn. Moose Sqdn.
Resident Wheatley
Books Of Rememberance Page Available

Derbyshire, Donovan Emmerson

 

 

Born 11 February, 1918 in Wheatley, ON. the son of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Derbyshire of Wheatley. Don was and honours business school graduate of the University of Western Ontario when he enlisted in the RCAF. 

Don was an honours business school graduate of the University of Western Ontario when he enlisted in the RCAF. 

After pilot training he was posted to 419 All-Weather Fighter Sqd. a part of Bomber Command operations. Don died two weeks before “D-Day”. He almost made it home. (Photo of Don in civilian dress).

KIA Date of Death: 23/05/1944, Age 21.

P/O Derbyshire was flying in Lancaster bomber # KB 717, target Dortmund, Germany. The bomber was shot down 1 ½ miles south of Monchen-Gladbach at Genhulsen, Germany during a night operation against the city of Dortmund. P/O Derbyshire and seven other crew members perished in the crash. Other members of the crew were Patterson C.E.G. P/O(P), P/O’s Bailey D. F., FS. Chawanski A.P., WO. Beckett A.C., F/O. Mitchell, FS. (RAF) Jones, O. and P/O (RAF) Wood, R.E.N.   This was P/O. Derbyshire’s 18th operation.  Officially listed as MIA, it was not until 1948 that the registrar’s office at UWO received a letter from Germany containing two tattered photos and a letter from a German civilian who had salvaged them from a wrecked aircraft in which all of the crew had been killed. This was P/O. Derbyshire’s eighteenth operation. One of the photos showed three young men standing in front of the main entrance to the University of Western Ontario. Two of the men were immediately identified but the third took some time and turned out to be Don Derbyshire, his family finally had the confirmation they dreaded.   

Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead, Grave/Memorial Reference: Coll. grave 3. H. 18-22. Cemetery: First burial at Monhen-Gladbach, Germany, exhumed and reburied in the War Cemetery at RHEINBERG, Germany.  (3.H.18-22)

In 2006 Don’s sister, as a Silver Cross family, laid the wreath for Southwold Township.

Memorial – Pilot Officer Donovan Emmerson Derbyshire is also commemorated on the Bomber Command Memorial Wall in Nanton, AB … photo courtesy of Marg Liessens.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Sources Found on the Wheatley cenotaph, Wheatley, ON. CWG, “They Shall Grow Not Old”, Canadian Virtual War Memorial, TSGNO, CWG, CVWM - Silver Cross Photo
Supplemental Information Born 11 February, 1918 in Wheatley, ON. the son of Mr. and Mrs. Seth Derbyshire of Wheatley. Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead, Grave/Memorial Reference: Coll. grave 3. H. 18-22. Cemetery: First burial at Monhen-Gladbach, Germany, exhumed and reburied in the War Cemetery at RHEINBERG, Germany
Age 21
Birthplace Wheatley, Ontario

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