Service No: 655939 Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Died 27 May 1942 aged 22 Buried Castle Bromwich Graveyard.r
Edgar Charles O’Donnell was born in 1920 the son of Charles Edwin A.C.I.I. and Winifred O’Donnell, of Ward End, Birmingham.
During the early 1940s the family was living at 36 Morris Road, Ward End.
Edgar became a member of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. At the outbreak of war in September 1939 the RAFVR comprised 6,646 pilots, 1,625 observers and 1,946 wireless operators. During the war, these were used as the principal means of entry for aircrew to serve with the RAF.
Edgar was posted to No. 5 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit of the RAF. This section of the unit was formed on 1st August 1941 from the Beaufort section of the No. 3 Operational Training Unit.
The Bristol Beaufort was a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
Beauforts first saw service with the Royal Air Force Coastal Command and then the Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm from 1940. They were used as torpedo bombers, conventional bombers and mine-layers until 1942.
Although designated a bomber, the Beaufort flew more hours in training than on operational missions and more were lost through accidents and mechanical failures than were lost to enemy fire.
On 27th May 1942 Edgar O’Donnell took off from base in a Beaufort I N1023 and never returned. He was found in the sea off Maidens with multiple head injuries. His death was registered at Kirks uswald, Ayrshire.
He was buried in Castle Bromwich Graveyard. His grave was tidied by young people in 2012 as part of the Castle Bromwich Youth & Community Partnership Graveyard Project.
References
