BASSON, Peter Henry, Pilot Officer (Rear Gunner) 48081
No.149 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in action 24th July 1942 aged 29
Pilot Officer Peter Basson
Image courtesy of Tessa, daughter of David Morris © 2011
Peter Henry Basson's birth was registered in the quarter ending September 1913 in Poole Dorset (GRO Ref: Sept 1913 Poole 5a 477), the eldest son of Bertie Henry Thomas and Davidina Crockett Basson, nee Methven.
Peter's father had been born in 1879 in Littlemore, Oxfordshire and by the age of 22 was training to be a cook. Peter's mother was born in 1889 in Edinburgh, Scotland. 29-year-old Bertie married 22-year-old Davidina on 28 November 1908 at 118 Princes Street Edinburgh, Scotland. At the time Bertie was the hotel manager for the George Hotel in George Street, Edinburgh
.
When the 1911 census was taken, the couple appear as joint managers of the King's Head Hotel in Change Alley, Sheffield.
There are conflicting Poole registration district birth entries for Peter's younger sister Angela.
- Angela H G Basson has been registered in the quarter ending June 1919 (mother's maiden name Methven).
- Angela H I Basson has been registered in the quarter ending September 1920 (mother's maiden name Methven).
As yet, I have been unable to find any further records for her.
Peter's parent's marriage did not last and in 1929, after divorcing, Davidina married Thomas Reginald Ransom, an estate agent, in Wandsworth London. The couple lived in The Riviera Hotel Canford Cliffs, Bournemouth where Davidina later died, aged 55, on 2 March 1934 leaving an estate of £16,214 17s 7d.
By 1937 Bertie was living at 32 Princess Road, Bournemouth and in 1940 he married Jeannette Oppenheimer. Bertie died aged 72 in 1951 in the Ploughley registration district in Oxfordshire.
There does not appear to have been any children from either of these second marriages.
It is unknown if Peter and Angela lived with either of their parents after the divorce, but the CWGC records show that Peter had been living in West Ewell Surrey. I have not found any record of a marriage for Peter, or of his address in West Ewell.
Peter was the Rear Gunner of W7580, a Short Stirling of No.149 Squadron, which had the code number of OJ-D.
Three Short Stirlings
Image source Wikimedia
The RAF crew was made up of the following:
- F/O A.J.L.Bowes, Captain
- Sgt N. Acton, Flight Engineer.
- Sgt D. Morris, Observer
- Sgt G Blatherwick, W/Op
- Sgt E.H. Boumphrey, A/G Forward
- Sgt E.C. Isted, A/G Mid. Upper
- P/O Peter H.Basson, A/G Rear.
Both AJL Bowes and Peter H Basson were posted into 149 Squadron on the 13 July from 1651 Conversion Flight, just ten days before Stirling No. W7580 took off from RAF Lakenheath, in East Anglia, at 01.11am on the night of 23/24 July 1942. The operation was a bombing raid on Duisburg, just over the German boarder. OJ - D was shot down by a German night-fighter, and the aircraft crashed at 03.25am into a field near to the village of Geffen (Noord Brabant), 5km SW of Oss in Holland. (Source = AIR 27/1002 at The National Archives Kew.)
All of the RAF crew died and were buried temporarily in the garden of the parish priest. The bodies were later exhumed and buried in the Uden War Cemetery. Peter H Basson's grave reference is Coll. grave 4. I. 10-13.
With thanks to Ruun Verhagen for supplying additional information