The Back Story
I stumbled across details of this tragic and little-known crash while researching newspaper archives for a book about the history of Birgham, a quiet wee village in the Scottish Borders. Unsurprisingly, few of the current villagers could recall the incident in November1945.
I was intrigued by the story and in an attempt to discover more, I wrote to the National Archives and was amazed to learn that they still had a copy of the original Air Accident Investigation Report from the Ministry of Defence on file.
There has been considerable local interest in memorialising this hereto little-known WWII tragedy that occurred on the outskirts of the village on the 27th of November 1945.
Flying-Officer Rowland Gomm Marshall, of Hebden Bridge, was killed when the 'plane he was piloting crashed yesterday morning on the Scottish border. The 'plane, which had left Millfield Aerodrome (Northumberland), was flying high when it appeared to explode in mid-air. The main part crashed near Birgham, Kelso, but other parts were so scattered that they, landed in three counties, Northumberland, Roxburghshire, and Berwickshire. Marshall's body was found in a field near part of the main fuselage at Birgham.
The village wishes to erect the memorial adjacent to the village’s existing war memorial near the park on the main village street.
I also thought it would be worthwhile placing a second memorial plaque on the village's cemetery wall, as the adjacent lane is visited frequently by visitors using the popular river walk, as well as others visiting the graveyard. This location is also adjacent to the field to the east of the cemetery where most of the aircraft wreckage fell.
The wall plaque would be approx. 12” X12” and read as follows:
The Marshall Memorial
Erected in memory of RAF Flying Officer Rowland Gomm Marshall of Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, who was based at 56 OTU, RAF Milfield, near Wooler, in Northumberland.
He was tragically killed on the 27th November 1945 while performing aerobatics during a training flight, when his Hawker Tempest V aircraft exploded in midair, to the south east of Birgham, with the aircraft’s main wreckage falling on the outskirts of the village, just west of Homebank Farm.
“He gave his life for freedom’s flame - Let us not forget this pilot’s name”.
NOTE: The aircraft depicted in this draft design of the plaque is NOT a Hawker Tempest, but this will obviously be replaced in the final production design. Another example of the style of the bronze plaque is shown here:
Tracing the Family
Finally, and unfortunately, attempts to trace family members of the pilot through publicity in his hometown of Heptonstall, Hebden Bridge and surrounding areas, have, at the time of writing, been unsuccessful. It would have been fitting to have any present-day family attend the unveiling of the ‘Marshal Memorial’ in the village on Remembrance Day 2025 and again on the 80th anniversary of this tragic crash - 27th November 2025.