Sergeant John Ruddock 1379252, RAFVR - killed with his crew in a training accident

John Ruddock was born in April 1921 in Hemsworth Yorkshire, the son of Richard and Bertha Ruddock.

In the 1921 census, Richard, Bertha and John were living with Richard’s parents, John and Fanny and Richard’s sister Rachel and brother John, at 4 Sunnyside Avenue, Askern Yorkshire.

At the time of the 1939 register, John was still living with his grandparents, but they had moved to 7 Rushymoor Avenue in Doncaster. John was working as a Laboratory Assistant, Low Temp Carbonisation Ovens; he was also a Special Constable attached to the Observer Corps.

John married Joan Patricia Jenkins in late 1941 in Bridgend, Glamorganshire.

John joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve and was posted as a Sergeant Pilot under training to No16 Operational Training Unit, at Upper Heyford Aerodrome, Oxfordshire.

While piloting Hampden L4050 on 11 September 1941 he was injured in an aircraft accident along with his Observer Sergeant W A Collins. The accident report file at The National Archives shows that they overshot on landing and hit a petrol tanker on the edge of the dispersal area. The aircraft was totally burnt out, but luckily the two airmen both got away with only slight injuries.

He was later posted to No13 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Bicester and just four months after his initial accident he was killed in the fatal crash of Blenheim R3907. He had taken off from RAF Bicester on a daylight cross country exercise on 29 January 1942 and crashed at Fullaway Farm, Stert just southeast of Devizes in Wiltshire. The crew of three Sergeant J Ruddock, Sergeant R S Raines and Sergeant K Riding, were killed instantly.

The Air Accident report contains very limited details of the event. The report by P/O Courtnay the appropriate specialist officer simply states “Aircraft completely burnt out, unable to find out if there was any technical defect. Aircraft nose dived into the ground vertically with the exception of the tail unit, the remainder was burnt. Fuel tanks burst on impact.”

Sergeant Ruddock and Sergeant Raines were buried side by side in St Laurence’s churchyard, Caversfield near RAF Bicester in Oxfordshire on 4 February 1942. Sergeant Riding was buried in Marton St Paul Cemetery, Blackpool.

John is also commemorated on panel 93 of the International Bomber Command Centre memorial walls in Lincoln..