Sunderland may hold a silky
secret!
The wreck of Sunderland flying
boat T9044, which sank off Pembroke Dock 72 years
ago, may hold another secret - a silk dressing gown
belonging to a pilot who flew the aircraft on
operational patrols.
Christine Chapman, a recent
visitor to the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust,
recalls her father, Norman Chapman, saying that
T9044 still had the box containing his dressing gown
when the aircraft sank in November 1940.
The then Pilot Officer Chapman
flew T9044 in the autumn of 1940, carrying out six
Atlantic convoy patrols with his crew.
“My father said that his
dressing gown, bought for his honeymoon in 1937, was
still on board together with other personal items
and that the aircraft was rammed by a fishing boat,”
added Christine.
She was delighted to find a
photograph and information on her father at the
Flying Boat Centre which tells the story of T9044
and people who flew it.
Christine has a special
affection for Pembroke Dock, both through her
father’s long association with the RAF Station, and
because she was baptised in the RAF Station Church
(formerly the Dockyard Chapel) on Easter Sunday
1940.
During her visit she was taken
to see the beautifully restored chapel by John Evans
and Martin Cavaney of the Sunderland Trust.
“This has been a marvellous
day,” said Christine. “My father and mother had very
fond memories of PD. They returned here in the mid
1960s, not long before my father retired from the
RAF, and in a local newsagents my father was
welcomed by name. He never forgot that.”
Norman Chapman was a regular
airman who joined up as an RAF Halton apprentice in
1928. He trained as a pilot in the mid 1930s and was
posted to 210 Squadron at Pembroke Dock, flying
biplane flying boats before joining an elite group
of airmen who brought the Sunderland into service at
PD. He retired as a Wing Commander, having been
awarded the OBE and one of the first wartime Mention
in Dispatches, in February 1940.
Captions:
Christine
Chapman pictured with her baptismal certificate at
the Dockyard Chapel where she was baptised in 1940.
With her is John Evans of the Sunderland Trust.
The baptismal
certificate, signed by the RAF Chaplain.
PICTURE:
Martin Cavaney Photography.