Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Aircraftman William Charles Irvine
Date Information
10/12/2020
10/12/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 12th June 1943:
10/12/2020 IRVINE - In loving memory of dear Billy, Royal Air Force, killed in action 11th June 1940. ‘Greater love hath no man than this.’ Ever remembered by his loving mother, brothers and sisters, Doorless, Tullyhogue, Cookstown.
08/10/2020 IRVINE - In loving memory of my dear Billy, Royal Air Force, killed in action 11th June 1940. Memories will ever remain. Ever remembered by his loving mother, brothers and sisters, Doorless, Tullyhogue.
08/10/2020
08/10/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 16th June 1945:
06/07/2020 Bringing many a silent tear.’
06/07/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 10th June 1944:
06/07/2020
06/07/2020 IRVINE - In loving memory of my dear son Billy, Royal Air Force, killed in action 11th June 1940.
06/07/2020 ‘Not a day do we forget him,
06/07/2020 Loved, remembered, longed for always,
06/07/2020 Ever remembered by his mother, brothers and sisters, Doorless, Tullyhogue, Cookstown
06/07/2020 In our hearts he is always near;
15/01/2020 ‘Not a day do we forget him,
15/01/2020 IRVINE - In loving memory of my dear son Billy, Royal Air Force, killed in action 11th June 1940.
15/01/2020
15/01/2020 Loved, remembered, longed for always,
15/01/2020 Bringing many a silent tear.’
15/01/2020 Ever remembered by his mother, brothers and sisters, Doorless, Tullyhogue, Cookstown
15/01/2020 In our hearts he is always near;
15/01/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 13th June 1942:
20/12/2019 Mrs W Irvine, of ex-Soldier’s Cottages, Tullyhogue, has been notified by the Air Ministry that her eldest son, Aircraftman (1st Class) William C Irvine, was killed on 11th June when the aircraft, of which he was wireless operator, crashed at the aerodrome when taking off. He was 19 years of age.
20/12/2019
20/12/2019 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated 22nd June 1940:
09/09/2019 The CWGC record Aircraftman 1st Class William Charles Irvine as the son of William and Ethel Irvine, of Tullyhogue, County Tyrone.
09/09/2019 Billy’s parents returned to Tullyhogue where they ran a cobblers shop and raised seven children.
09/09/2019 Known family: William Irvine, Ethel Irvine, William Charles Irvine (born about 1921), Jack Irvine, Albert Irvine, Victor Irvine, Percy Irvine, Margaret Irvine, Violet Irvine.
09/09/2019 Aircraftman 1st Class (Wireless Operator) William Charles (Billy) Irvine served with 220 Squadron of the Royal Air Force in World War Two.
09/09/2019 On 11th June 1940 Aircraftman Irvine’s Hudson aircraft (serial no P5127) took off from Thornaby airfield near Middlesbrough at 3.20 in the morning with a crew of four. It left the ground normally and climbed away to around two hundred feet after which a turn to the right was made which increased in steepness until it stalled and flew into the ground.
09/09/2019 The crash site is believed to have been near to Quarry Farm, Ingleby Barwick. The crash caused the bomb load to explode which resulted in the deaths of all four airmen. The crewmen were:
09/09/2019 525413 Sergeant James Richard Butterworth
09/09/2019 564819 Sergeant Dennis Robert Holbeche
09/09/2019 625299 Aircraftman 1st Class William Charles Irvine
09/09/2019 700305 Sergeant Eric Morgan
09/09/2019 Aircraftman, 1st Class (Wireless Operator) William Charles (Billy) Irvine was buried in Thornaby-On-Tees Cemetery, Yorkshire, England. His inscription reads ‘PEACE, PERFECT PEACE’. All four crew members are buried together in this cemetery
09/09/2019
09/09/2019
09/09/2019 William Charles (Billy) Irvine was the son of William and Ethel Victoria Irvine (nee Appelby) of Doorless, Tullyhogue. Billy mother Ethel came from Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. His parents met there. His father was a Wold War One veteran and poet.
09/09/2019 The investigation into the incident and the Court of Inquiry returned verdicts of ‘cause obscure’. This would be the first of two Hudson crashes at Quarry Farm.
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