Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 147 continued ... “The patrol over, they were returning to Wick. The crew were more relaxed than they should have been. No watch was being kept on the radar, and no navigation fixes had been obtained – why bother, there was nothing but open sea for miles around!! At 1930, flying in cloud, the aircraft flew into the summit of the Sneug (418 m high) on Foula, Shetland Island. There was a violent explosion throwing wreckage over a wide area. One piece of wreckage fell at the feet of a woman hanging out her washing at Grass Meadow, a mile from the crash. Peter and Davie Gear, with Robbie Isbister made their way to the mountain dreading what they might find. They were amazed to find one of the crew alive. F/Sgt Knight had been in one of the blisters and had been thrown clear. He had received a broken pelvis and burns. As luck would have it, the District Nurse who was the only medical help on the island, was away on holiday. It was left to the islanders to make Sgt Knight as comfortable as possible. News of the accident was sent by telegraph but the RAF were already expecting it. The radar station at Watts Ness had been tracking the Canso and when the blip had not re-emerged from the permanent blip of Foula it was suspected that something was wrong. Luckily the sea was calm and a seaplane, with the RAF Station Sumburgh medical officer on board, was able to land and take F/Sgt Knight to Scalloway. The next day volunteers were called for at RAF Sumburgh to go to Foula and recover the bodies of: Flying Officer Abram Hildebrand of Winkler, MB (pilot); Flying Officer Willis Hilson Lloyd of Berwick, NS (pilot); Flying Officer George Gordon Bradshaw of Cobourg, ON (navigator/bomber); Pilot Officer James Edwin Bowler of Bartonville, ON (wireless operator/air gunner); Warrant Officer II Robert Densmore Harvey o Ellershouse, NS (wireless operator/air gunner); Pilot Officer Elliot Courtney Watson of Sarnia, ON (wireless operator/air gunner), and Flight Sergeant Robert Wilford Ernest Townsend of Tisdale, SK (flight engineer). The crew are buried in Terrace 7b of the Lerwick New Cemetery. That cemetery contains the graves of 120 war dead of Australia, Canada, Norway, and the UK. In January 2019 Helen Himmelman, of Mahone Bay, NS, visited the graves of the crew of Canso A 11062 and left a tribute of red and white flowers. A 11062 - crash site on Shetland Island Lest We Forget
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