Date:	Thursday 18 September 1941
Time:	day
Type:	De Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth
Owner/operator:	Wyton SF RAF
Registration:	AX788
MSN:	3725
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Caxton Gibbet RLG, Ermine Street, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Teversham, Cambridgeshire [EGSC]
Destination airport:	RAF Caxton Gibbet RLG, Cambridgeshire

Narrative:
First registered [C of R 8674] on 23.8.38 as G-AFJH to The Merseyside Aero & Sports Co Ltd., Liverpool Airport, Speke, Liverpool. C of A 6409 issued 6.10.38. Believed grounded at Speke from 4.9.39 when all private civilian flying was prohibited due to the outbreak of war.

Civil registration G-AFJH cancelled 22.7.40 when impressed into military service as AX788. Taken on charge at 15 MU, RAF Wroughton, Wiltshire 26.7.40. To RAF Wyton Station Flight, RAF Wyton, Huntingdonshire 17.6.41.

Written off (destroyed) 18.9.41 when dived into the ground on approach to RAF Caxton Gibbet RLG (Relief Landing Ground), Ermine Street, Cambridgeshire. According to the file at the National Archives on this incident (File AIR 81/9185 - see link #3): "Pilot Officer J R Thomson: killed; Pilot Officer N Holden: injured; aircraft accident, Tiger Moth AX788, RAF Wyton Station Flight, 18 September 1941". According to the RAF Wyton ORB (Operations Record Book - Air Ministry Form AM.F540):

"P/O Holden asked P/O Thomson to take the controls momentarily while he checked his map. A/c dived suddenly from 900ft giving P/O Holden insufficient time to recover the situation before the aircraft crashed at Caxton Gibbet".

Tiger Moth AX788 was Struck off Charge as FACE (Flying Accident Cat.E) 22.9.41. The sole fatality - Pilot Officer John Rauthmell THOMSON RAF VR (Service Number 85703, aged 40) - was buried at Wyton (St. Margaret and All Saints) Churchyard, Wyton, Huntingdonshire. He was officially on the strength of 15 Squadron, RAF

Pilot : Pilot Officer Norman Holden RAF 68177 [Injured] (NCO:1014103 Commission Gazetted : Friday 04 July, 1941)
Air Gunner : Pilot Officer John Rauthmell Thomson RAFVR 85703 [Killed] (Commission Gazetted : Tuesday 22 October, 1940)

Caxton Gibbet is a small knoll on Ermine Street (now the A1198) in England, running between London and Huntingdon, near its crossing with the road (now the A428) between St Neots and Cambridge. The place name is derived from a gallows, used for executions, which stood in the area between the 1670s and the 1830s. The location gave its name to an RAF Relief Landing Ground, operated between summer 1940 and 9 July 1945, in the field to the east of Ermine Street. It was used by Tiger Moths of the 22 Elementary Flight Training School (Cambridge) and huts there were used to house personnel from 105 Squadron at RAF Bourn

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft AA100-AZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR81/9185: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16997432
3. CWGC: https://www.cwgc.org/find-records/find-war-dead/casualty-details/2949921/john-rauthmell-thomson/
4. https://www.afleetingpeace.org/index.php/page-gb-registers-g-af
5. https://cwsprduksumbraco.blob.core.windows.net/g-info/HistoricalLedger/G-AFJH.pdf
6. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/gy/reg_G-A11.html
7. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/dh/p037.html
8. https://air-britain.com/pdfs/production-lists/DH82.pdf
9. https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/228058/
10. https://www.cambridgenetwork.co.uk/news/70th-anniversary-of-the-tiger-moth-at-cambridge-airport/
11. http://www.roll-of-honour.com/RoyalAirForce/CountyAirfields.html
12. http://www.abct.org.uk/airfields/airfield-finder/caxton-gibbet/
13. http://www.ukairfieldguide.net/airfields/CaxtonGibbetflyingsites
14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caxton_Gibbet
15. Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
12-Feb-2018 21:58	Dr. John Smith	Added
06-Dec-2018 17:46	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]
10-Aug-2021 00:35	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
10-Aug-2021 21:51	TB	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Operator]
27-Feb-2022 21:31	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Source, Narrative]
27-Feb-2022 21:35	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
28-Feb-2022 09:29	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]