Flight Lieutenant Basil Graham WALSH (106046)
37 Squadron Royal Air Force

Date of birth: 31st March 1920
Date of death: 27th January 1944

Killed in action aged 23
Commemorated on the Malta Memorial Panel 13 Column 1
He was born in Wimbledon on the 31st of March 1920, the son of Walter Graham Walsh, assurance clerk, and Winifred Mary (nee Stroud) of Pepys House, Gloucester Road, Tankerton, Kent.

He was educated at Eddington House, Herne Bay, and at the King's School Canterbury from April 1934 to July 1937, where he was a dayboy in Marlowe House.

On the outbreak of war he joined the Home Guard and in early 1940 he volunteered for the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He received part of his training in Canada as a navigator/observer and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer on the 5th of August 1941. He returned to the UK on a ferry flight as the navigator of a new American bomber.

He was promoted to Flying Officer on the 5th of August 1942 and to Flight Lieutenant on the 5th of August 1943.

He was posted to 37 Squadron and saw service in North Africa and in the Italian campaigns where he served as Navigation Officer for the squadron. The squadron operated Wellington and Liberator aircraft and from the 13th of January 1944 they were based at Tortorella (known as Foggia to the crews) in Italy.

Basil Walsh and his crew took off from Tortorella at 6.14pm on the 27th of January 1944 in Wellington Mk X HE898 "P" for an operation to attack the railway marshalling yards at Arezzo. His aircraft was seen to come down in flames off the coast and two fruitless searches of the area were conducted in the hope of locating any survivors.

The crew was:-

Flight Sergeant Noel George Brodrick RAAF (Pilot}
Flight Lieutenant Basil Graham Walsh (Navigator)
Sergeant John Frederick Street (Navigator)
Sergeant John Henry Adams (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)
Flying Officer Leslie Wallace Creasey (Air Bomber)
Flight Sergeant Frederick Thomas Lovegrove NZAF (Rear Gunner)

All other crews returned safely.

He is commemorated on the war memorial at Whitstable.

Back