Ronald Aubrey Crawford – Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 10 Squadron

Sergeant Ronald Aubrey Crawford – Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 10 Squadron

Family Background and Early Life

Ronald Aubrey Crawford was born in 1920 in Swansea, the younger son of Arthur James Crawford and Florence May Williams.

1921 Census

At the time of the 1921 Census, the Crawford family was residing at 24 Fullers Row, Swansea, the home of Ronald’s maternal grandfather, John Williams. John, a widower aged sixty‑six, had spent his working life as a Boilermaker with Harris Docks, Swansea, though at the time of the census he was recorded as out of work. Ronald’s father, Arthur James Crawford, aged twenty‑one and born in Monmouthshire, was employed as a General Labourer by Clayton & Sons, Leeds Tank & Boiler Makers, while his wife Florence May, aged twenty, was occupied with their young family. Their children were Kenneth, aged two, and Ronald, then just nine months old.

1939 Register

By the time of the 1939 Register, the family was living at 27 Brooklands Terrace, Swansea. Arthur, now recorded as Arthur G. Crawford, was employed as a Post Office Telecommunications Installer, while Florence was engaged in household duties. Ronald, then nineteen, was working as a Motor Factor’s Shop Assistant, a role he held before entering wartime service.

Service with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Ronald enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, where he trained as aircrew and was posted to No. 10 Squadron, a unit operating Handley Page Halifax heavy bombers from RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire. By 1944 the squadron was heavily involved in operations connected with the Allied invasion of Europe, including attacks on V‑1 flying bomb launch sites in northern France. These missions were often flown at low or medium altitude and carried significant risks, particularly during take‑off and assembly when aircraft were heavily laden with fuel and bombs.

Final Flight, 17 June 1944

Halifax III

On the night of 17 June 1944, Sergeant Ronald Aubrey Crawford was serving on board a Halifax III tasked with attacking a V‑1 flying bomb site at Domléger, part of a major 405‑aircraft combined effort directed against four such sites. All targets were successfully struck, but one aircraft was lost — the Halifax carrying Ronald and his crew.

Shortly after take‑off from RAF Melbourne, the aircraft suffered a catastrophic engine fire. With the Halifax fully fuelled and climbing away from the airfield, the fire rapidly worsened, and the aircraft entered an uncontrollable spin. Approximately thirty minutes after take‑off, it crashed at Rawcliffe, south‑west of Goole, Yorkshire. One air gunner survived, but the remainder of the crew, including Ronald, were killed. The accident occurred before the aircraft could join the main bomber stream, and the loss was recorded as a tragic operational accident during the opening phase of the mission.

Burial and Commemoration

Sergeant Ronald Aubrey Crawford, aged twenty‑four, has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, which honours airmen lost without trace during the Second World War. His fellow crew members were Sergeant Cyril Albert Reginald Dummer, buried at Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate; Pilot Officer Norman Colin Campbell Leitch, also buried at Stonefall Cemetery; Sergeant Clarence Ralph Benjamin Lawington, buried at Melksham Church Cemetery; Flight Sergeant William John McCarroll, commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial; and Sergeant Ronald Francis Pearce, buried at Ford Park Cemetery, Plymouth. Their service and sacrifice remain remembered across the cemeteries and memorials where their names endure.