PROVERBS – Keith Gordon

97664 – Pilot Officer – Pilot – 517 Sqn, Coastal Command – Halifax RG380 – KIA at 27

Volunteer Trinidad ETS, trained Piarco, Flt Instructor, 2 Tours, Crashed in high ground in bad visibility at 1957hrs on 10 Sep 45, south west of Williton, Somerset. All crew perished – Son of Ivan Gordon Proverbs and Nelly Kathleen Proverbs, of Bridgetown, Barbados.

[Source: CMHA]

605473 – K.G. Proverbs – Trinidad – attested 28.7.42 – Sgt. Pilot UK 5.1.4

[Source: NA AIR 2/6876]

Keith Proverbs during pilot training at Piarco, Trinidad.

[Picture courtesy Keith’s brother Desmond Proverbs published in Bajan Things]

Name: PROVERBS, KEITH GORDON
Initials: K G
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Pilot Officer (Pilot)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 517 Sqdn.
Age: 27
Date of Death: 10/09/1945
Service No: 197664
Additional information: Son of Ivan Gordon Proverbs and Nelly Kathleen Proverbs, of Bridgetown, Barbados.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot 39. Sec. H. Row D. Grave 249.
Cemetery: BATH (HAYCOMBE) CEMETERY

Halifax RG380 on a Met flight. Hit high ground on approach Weston Zoyland and crashed Crowcombe Park, Quantocks, Somerset. Also killed: J.J.F. Hobden, 154868 – L.G. McMillan, 153580 – P.A. Bee, 191540 – R.D. Cartwright, 1471979 – R.W. Vinton, 1608294 – D.N. Everett, 1154488 – L.G. Groves, 1483506 (of Meteo Office Brawdy) and J.McI.B. Gordon, 1825115 (of Meteo Office Brawdy).

[Source: www.WW2chat.com]

Click here to read the detailed story of Bajan pilot P/O Proverbs and his crew who tragically lost their lives when their Halifax Met. Mk. III aircraft RG380 crashed in dense fog following a meteorological sortie on 10th September 1945.  

Out of this terrible tragedy came the the annually awarded LG Groves Award, set up by Major Keith Grimble Groves and his wife Dorothy in 1946 in memory of their only son SGT Louis Grimble Groves the Meteorologist Air Observer for RG380.

Every life that is saved by the annually awarded LG Groves Award  for Air Safety and Science is a continual memorial to the sacrifice of the nine young men who died when RG380 crashed.

[Source: Bajan Things]

Leave a Reply