Trafford

Formerly from Liverpool.

Attended Altrincham Grammar School.   Employed by the Vulcan Insurance Co. 
  All round sportsman, but particularly keen on cricket.

Joined the RAF in 1942.     He was on the last flight of his Navigator
training course when his aircraft crashed into the side of a mountain in
Northern Ireland. 

On 12th January 1945, De Havilland Mosquito NS966 from R.A.F. No. 60
Operational Training Unit took off on a nighttime training flight. The
plane left from R.A.F. High Ercall, Shropshire, England. At the controls of
the plane was Flight Lieutenant Robert MacKenzie (132624). Flying Officer
John Gordon Faragher (165455) was the Navigator on board.

This training flight was the last on Faragher’s Navigator Training
Course. Records are not clear on the destination of the Mosquito but,
having crossed the Irish Sea, it may have been bound for R.A.F. Long Kesh.
The flight, however, ended in tragedy when the De Havilland plane, in heavy
cloud, crashed into the side of Slieve Commedagh in the Mourne Mountains,
Co. Down. On the same night, Avro Anson MK890 also crashed as part of the
same R.A.F. No. 60 O.T.U. Programme.

So adverse were the weather conditions in Northern Ireland during the
winter of 1945, the wreckage of the Mosquito was only uncovered at the
beginning of March that year. Some wreckage of the De Havilland Mosquito
remains near “The Castles”. In October 1945, a Royal Air Force salvage
team assessed the site but decided against recovery of the written-off
plane.

In 1986, recovery of the Rolls Royce Merlin V-12 engine took place with
permission from the Ministry of Defence and the local landowner. In a joint
operation between the Army Air Corps and the Ulster Aviation Society, the
engine made its way via helicopter to the Ulster Transport Museum, Cultra,
Co. Down.

Buried on Saturday 10/03/1945 at St. Martin's - Grave Ref: 2.204.

145 Sqn Memorial - Altrincham Grammar School.