Date:	Saturday 2 July 1949
Time:	08:38 UTC
Type:	Miles M.38 Messenger Mk 4A
Owner/operator:	Thomas William Hayhow
Registration:	G-ALBR
MSN:	RH378
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Aldenham House, Butterfly Lane, Radlett, Borehamwood, Herfordshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Private
Departure airport:	Elstree Airfield, Elstree, Herfordshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
c/n 4702 (also quoted as 4704) RH378 M.38 Messenger Mk.l (145 hp DH Gipsy Major ID engine); tenth production airframe, built at Woodley; first flown 2.6.45. Delivered to de Havillands, Hatfield 25.6.45; returned to Miles Aircraft Ltd on an unrecorded date; flown by Flight Lt Trevor Martin on 15.9.45 on an air test at Woodley, prior to him flying it to Brussels on 6.11.45.

The RAF record card gives the next unit as H.Q., B.A.F.O. Communications Wing, 8.11.45. Although allotted for use by Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery (his third Messenger) as a replacement for RG333, it was not actually used by him personally.

RH378 was photographed (probably at Woodley in late 1945) which reveals a Union Jack on the central fin with below it a bar with 5 stars denoting the rank of Field Marshal (the British Army rank of Field Marshall had no equivalent in the U.S. Army whose highest rank was General - Monty finally made his point by outranking Eisenhower!). Flight Lt Martin last flew RH378 on 3.4.46, from airfield B.115 to Reading (5 hrs 15 min, he must have stopped somewhere to refuel but made no comment on this in his log book) for demobilisation from the RAF later that month. RH378 was then delivered to 51 MU Lichfield for storage 29.11.47.

Struck off charge when sold to J E Nicholson, Houghton-le-Spring, County Durham, 29.7.48; having been registered to him as a Messenger Mk.4A as G-ALBR on 18.6.48 with C of R No.12402/1. A photo taken at this time shows RH378 still camouflaged and with full military insignia, i.e. the British Army badge on the cowling, the Union Jack and five stars on the central fin but with G-ALBR in place of the roundel on the fuselage. CofA No.10217 issued 17.9.48 to J E Nicholson, York, with the place of build being shown by the ARB as Northern Ireland

Registration cancelled 14.6.49 and re-registered (C of R 12402/2) to Thomas William Hayhow, Middlesborough, North Yorkshire 27.6.49.

Crashed in the grounds of Aldenham House, Butterfly Lane, Radlett, Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, shortly after take-off from Elstree at 08:38 GMT on 2.7.49. Aldenham House is a former country house in Elstree, just south-east of Aldenham village and west of Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, England, which was the seat of the Gibbs family, who were the Barons Aldenham. It is approximately 1 mile north east of Elstree Airfield.

Registration G-ALBR cancelled as 'destroyed' 30.1.51.

NOTE: Messenger G-AJOE had been painted up to represent RH378, but it is, of course, not "the real thing"

1. National Archives (PRO Kew) File BT 217/2540: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C576694
2. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-ALBR.pdf
3. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/archive/Archive_2001.pdf
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Messenger
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldenham_House

Field Marshal Montgomery with General Sir John Burnett-Stuart, Colonel Commandant of the 1st Battalion Rifle Brigade, in the cockpit of Monty's personal Miles Messenger aircraft RH378 during a tour of the front, 8 March 1945.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-Dec-2019 19:16	Dr. John Smith	Added
26-Sep-2022 21:58	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative, Category]
26-Sep-2022 22:01	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]