To:
AC2 - LAC - W/O H.P. MARSH (506997) R.A.F.
[BIOGRAPHY]
Harold Percy Marsh was born on 1st April 1906 and joined the Royal Air Force in 1927 as an AC/2. He was trained as an Air Gunner and in 1932 was posted to No.47 Squadron to serve on Fairey III Float Seaplanes.
[47 Squadron]
The 1920s and 30s found the squadron, equipped with aircraft such as the de Havilland DH9a, Fairey IIIF, and Fairey Gordon.
The Squadron was relocated to Khartoum, Egypt & The Sudan on policing duties.
[CRASH ON THE RIVER NILE]
On16th September 1932, Percy Marsh was involved in a fatal flying accident while acting as an air gunner in Fairey IIIF JR9792.
The aircraft was coming into land on the River Nile at Nyinakok, near Wau, Bahr el Ghazal province, Sudan, when the pilot 362873, Sgt Reginald Eaves Claridge, misjudged the round out above the water and pitched the aircraft tail over nose. Sgt Claridge, aged 25 was sadly drowned, but Gunner AC Harold Percy Marsh and Observer AC1 Edward Thomas New, swam to the shore and escaped unhurt.
[WORLD WAR TWO]
At the outbreak of WW2 47 Squadron was posted to North Africa
where before engaging the Italians during the early Second World War campaigns in East Africa, it was operating Vickers Wellesleys. During 1942 and 1943, equipped with the Bristol Beaufort and Beaufighter, the squadron undertook numerous ‘armed rover’ patrols in support of the fighting in North Africa and Tunisia, subsequently assisting in the Allied attempts to prevent the Aegean islands from coming under enemy control.
A transfer to the Far East followed and a conversion to de Havilland Mosquitos.
With the Japanese defeated the squadron went on to fulfil peace keeping duties on the Island of Java.
Harold Marsh received his RAF L.S.G.C. at the end of the war as a Warrant Officer in 1945 after his 18 years of service from 1927.
He lived in Worthing and was a member of the Air Gunners Association. His membership card is included.
An excellent and very scarce group to a man with a most unusual service career.
£595