Four Killed in Anson Bomber Crash at Kinmount, January 22, 1944

Materials Courtesy of Guy Scott

On January 22, 1944 Avro Anson Mark 1 5451 took off from the Royal Canadian Air Force Air Observers School at Malton, with orders to complete a compass swinging exercise (calibrating the compass to compensate for errors caused by the metals contained in the airplane) with two navigators who were in training. During this exercise, the pilot went off course and began unauthorized aerial acrobatics, that included flying at low altitude over Kinmount. While attempting these stunts, it is thought that the plane stalled at about 2000 feet and began spinning as it plummeted to the earth. The pilot restarted the engines and recovered from the spin, but crashed through an elm tree and slammed into the side of a hill, killing all four fliers on impact. Over the course of the Second World War, there were 230 British Commonwealth air training schools in Canada, providing instruction to 130,000 airmen. Approximately 800 died in crashes and accidents. The crew killed in Anson 6451 were:

RCAF Sergeant William C. Isted (Pilot)
RCAF Sergeant Bruce E. Lehman (Wireless Air Gunner)
RAFVR LAC B.G.R. Allen (1st Navigator)
RAFVR LAC C. Woden (2nd Navigator)

Four Killed in Anson Bomber Crash in Kinmount

From the Watchman-Warder

At about four p.m. on Saturday a plane was seen over the village of Kinmount. It remained in that locality doing numerous stunts and then started in a south-easterly direction. When about one and a half miles south and east of the village it was seen to act as if it was going to give more demonstrations, but whatever happened will probably never be known, for it started a nose dive below the hill and was not seen again by the onlookers. That was the way Mrs. Claude Austin of Kinmount described the accident which befell four of a crew in an Anson bomber, from Malton, last Saturday afternoon. The four men lost their lives instantly. Mrs. Austin stated that she watched the plane until it disappeared out of her sight and a few minutes later crashed.

First news of the accident reached Lindsay when Wm. Craven of 183 William Ave., Toronto, telephoned Chief of Police R.H. Lawler. Shortly afterwards Provincial Constable R.H. McBrien left for the scene of the accident. Provincial Constable McBrien stated in part, “The accident took place about one and a half miles from Kinmount and we had to walk practically all the way to Capt. Williams’ farm on Shadow Lake. The plane crashed on a piece of land owned by Mr. McGann. Two men, Jos. McKale and Fred Stone, were engaged in building a log road and they stated that they first heard the roar of the engines but could see no plane. Then the plane nosed out through a white cloud and started coming down with the engines roaring. They watched the plane and heard the engines cut off. It still descended at a fast speed, according to them, and again they heard the two engines contact and the plane roared again as it descended. The pilot then apparently brought the plane out of the dive, but on a slant and the next thing it struck to top of a towering elm tree and nosed into a small hill of shale rock.”

“That’s their story, said Constable McBrien. “I got in touch with Manager McLeod of the Malton air field, who was visiting at Beaverton at the time and he arrived around eight o’clock. Flight Lieut. McKenzie, of the medical department and others also arrived and the remains of two of the crew were taken by the undertaker at Fenelon Falls, and the other two by the undertaker at Bobcaygeon. A guard was placed in charge of the wreck.”

The accident took place on Lot 1, Concession 15 Galway Township, in Peterborough County and on Saturday and Sunday was visited by hundreds of people.

In conversation with representatives of the Watchman-Warder, Messrs. McKale and Stone added: “We were working about 150 yards away and saw the hole thing. When we first saw the plane it was quite high. Suddenly it started to nose dive and came down a valley between two hills. When near the ground it started to pull up and started to gain some height. It then travelled almost due north. Just on the edge of the hill there stood a fairly tall elm tree. The plane hit the tree about 40 feet from the ground and broke many of the branches off. Hitting the tree pulled the plane down and it crashed into the hill. I believe the pilot would have made it over the hill,” said Mr. McHale. “The plane hit the hill about 20 feet from the highest part. There were four in the plane when the accident happened, one body being found about 30 feet from the plane, two more about 50 feet away and the pilot had gone completely over the top of the hill in the valley below.

Both Mr. Stone and Mr. McKale were there in a few minutes, but there was no sign of life in any of the crew. The wreckage was strewn from the elm tree for 100 yards.

Four in Plane Crash to Death Near Kinmount

Royal Canadian Air Force Headquarters here said today William Isted, 28 of Vancouver and Seargeant Burce Edward Leahman, of Regina, were two of four airmen killed Saturday when an Anson Bomber crashed at Shadow Lake, near Kinmount, 30 miles north of Lindsay.

Isted, pilot on indefinite leave from the RCAF, was at the controls of the aircraft, operating from the Air Observers’ School at Malton. His wife is in hospital with a new-born baby.

Leahman was wireless-air gunner. Also killed were two student observers of the Royal Air Force. Next-of-kin of the RAF men have been informed.

An investigation was conducted by provincial constable W. McBrien. He received an eye-witness account of the accident from two lumbermen, Fred Stone and Fred McHale. These men stated that upon hearing the sound of the plane, they watched for it and saw it come out of a white cloud, turn and then go back into the cloud. A few seconds later it came out into a spiral nose dive with the engines cut off. They heard the engines start again, but the plane continued spiraling and then continued down in an almost straight nose dive, crashing into an elm tree on the side of a rocky hill on the property of James McKane.

Wayne Scott (age 15) witnessed the event and subsequent clean-up first hand, writing this letter to his uncle Bill MacElwain of Bradford on January 29, 1944:

Dear Bill,

Well there is a little more news around the old town this last few days. I suppose you heard about the Avro Anson crashing here did you? Well I will do my best to tell you about it. There were four killed in it. About two minutes to four on Sat Jan 22 the bus driver and I were watching the plane doing stunts a little north of Kinmount. We were standing in front of the drug store. After it did a few rolls, banks and such it flew in a straight course down a little south of Kinmount. It flew into a cumulus cloud so we could not see it but we could hear it making rolls, banks, loops, etc. Then we saw it come out of the cloud and go into a power dive. We seen it disappear behind the trees and then we heard something like a crash and did not hear the motors anymore. So I got in the bus with him and went to the top of the Graveyard Hill. Mrs. Jim Allen came out and told us she had seen the snow fly up when it crashed. She gave us about the location where she seen it crash so we struck out to look for it. We went in from McGann’s old place about a mile and we found it. Fred Stone and Joe McHale were there. But they had never gone near the bodies at all because I could see no tracks. They were afraid to go near them. The plane was strung for about 300 ft. One engine was about 200 ft from the other one. The pilot lit about 200 ft from where the plane crashed. He had been thrown clear over the tree tops from where the plane crashed. The other 3 lit about 50 ft from each other.

Boy, were they an awful looking sight. You wouldn’t believe that men could be reduced to so small a parcel. Some of them had no arms or legs. I looked up in a tree and seen a man’s leg hanging from a branch. It seemed funny when they were picking the bodies up. One undertaker had a man’s leg in his hand and the two undertakers couldn’t figure out which body it went with. They were arguing over it. It didn’t seem funny then though.

The plane was a complete loss: there isn’t a part that can be used for anything but salvage. Two of the fellows that were killed were from England, one from Vancouver (he was the pilot) and one from Regina. They finished cleaning up the plane yesterday. On Monday I had a Squadron Leader come up to the house and get me to give him a statement on the crash. He had this model of an Avro Anson and he got me to show him all the maneuvers the plane made. Then I had to sign my name to it. The pilot was a civilian. He was instructing these navigators for the Air Force. The plane came from Malton Airport. They shouldn’t of been up here at all. The Squadron Leader told Dad and me that they had orders to fly to Markham and back to Toronto., but they came up here. They were 80 miles from where they should have been. There was no danger of getting lost as it was a clear day. I think that he just didn’t pull the plane out of the power dive in time. He struck a big elm first.

Yours truly,

Wayne