Mission: Local formation flying weather test

Date: 25 September 1941 (Thursday)

Unit: RAF No.245 Squadron

Type: Hawker Hurricane II

Serial: AP524

Code: MR-

Base: Chilbolton Down, Hampshire

Location: Near Stockbridge, Hampshire, UK

Pilot: P/O Kenneth William Hutchison J/5139 R.C.A.F. Age 28 Killed (Note: His Birth Certificate records his name as William Kenneth but in many of his Service Records it is given as Kenneth William).

REASON FOR LOSS

At 15:30 hours P/O Hutchison took off together with P/O Peter G. Herrick¹ for an authorized weather test.
Flying conditions at that time were very good with a broken cloud base at 2000 feet and five to eight-mile visibility.
At approximately 16:15 hours, witnesses reported seeing the two aircraft collide at about a height of 500 feet just west of the airfield over Chilbolton Down near Stockbridge.
Later at the Court of Inquiry, it was determined that an error in judgment by P/O Hutchison occurred when in the process of moving from echelon starboard to echelon port he came up and overshot Herrick's aircraft such that his starboard wing struck the port wing of Herrick's craft.
Neither pilot was able to bale out before the two Hurricanes spun earthwards killing both of them on impact.

William was the middle child of a brother and sister born to William and Maude Hutchison in St.Thomas, Ontario. At that time St.Thomas was a busy railroad hub where his Father worked as a conductor for the Pere Marquette Railroad.
William was a good student and after graduating from St.Thomas Collegiate he attended the Ontario Agricultural College where in 1938 he gained his Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture. He had sought to become a golf course architect but with the war in Europe there was little demand for new golf courses and so he took a position as a stockman at the local F.W.Woolworth store until he enlisted on 12 September 1940.
After his initial training at Regina, Saskatchewan he was selected for aircrew training and posted to No.6 Elementary Flying School, Prince Albert, Saskatchewan on 22 December 1940.
Next posted to No.2 Service Flying Training School at Uplands where he graduated with his Pilots badge on 18 April 1941. Posted to Halifax to await transport overseas, he applied for and received his commission on 4 May 1941.
Posted to the UK where he arrived in June 1941, he trained on the Hawker Hurricane before being posted to RAF No.245 Squadron that August. Sadly, he was to lose his life just four weeks later.

Burial Details:

P/O William Kenneth Hutchison. Brookwood Military Cemetery Cemetery, Surrey. Plot 31 Row 1 Grave 9. Son of William Francis and Maude Wilson (nee Gilbert) Hutchison, of St.Thomas, Ontario, Canada.

¹ See Loss Report P/O Herrick

Source Citation
Library and Archives Canada; Ottawa, Canada, Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939-1947, Series: RG 24, Volume: 28236

Source Information
Ancestry.com. Canada, World War II Records and Service Files of War Dead, 1939-1947 [database on line]. Lehi, UT, USA. Ancestry Operations, Inc., 2015.

The Canadian Virtual War Memorial (CVWM) Veterans Affairs Canada

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