Black, Kennedy Boyd (Boyd)

Sergeant (Flight Engineer)

No. 1130432, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve

Killed in an aircraft accident on Sunday 20 August 1944 (aged 22)

Buried:

Balteagh Presbyterian Churchyard, Co. Londonderry

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

Balteagh Presbyterian Church

BIOGRAPHY

Kennedy Boyd Black was born on 10 September 1921 and he was a son of Joseph Douglas and Maude Black (nee Love) of Drumsurn, Limavady.  Joseph Black was a farmer and he and Maude Love were married on 2 December 1909 in Magheramason Presbyterian Church, Co. Tyrone.  They had seven children:

Alexander Douglas Moorehead (born 21 August 1910; died 11 July 1971)

James Stewart Pattison (born 17 March 1912; died 16 February 1984; he was a Presbyterian Minister)

Joseph Victor McDonald (born 30 September 1913; died 1993)

Gilbert Louis Houston (born 12 March 1915; died 6 December 1981)

Samuel Arthur Oliver (born 30 July 1916; died 1981)

Agnes Wilhelmina Elizabeth (born 11 February 1918; died 12 May 2003)

Kennedy Boyd (born 10 September 1921)

Kennedy Boyd Black’s grandmother, Jane Black, died on 10 October 1928 (aged 85); his mother, Maude Black, died on 28 March 1943 and his father, Joseph Douglas Black, died on 3 January 1947.

During the Second World War Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Kennedy Boyd Black (No. 1130432) served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.  On 20 August 1944 an Avro Anson aircraft (LT658) from No. 12 Air Gunners School based at Bishops Court was on an air gunnery exercise when it broke up in mid-air as a result of a structural failure.  Wreckage fell to the ground over a wide area centred on Ballygalget Roman Catholic Church, Portaferry and all five crew members on board were killed:

Flying Officer (Pilot) Raymond Hodgson

Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Kennedy Boyd Black

Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Frank Bennett Bloor

Flight Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Thomas Charles Crisp

Sergeant (Air Gunner) George William Thomas Walker

All five deaths were registered in Downpatrick.

Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Kennedy Boyd Black (No. 1130432) was 22 when he died and he was buried in Balteagh Presbyterian Churchyard, Limavady, Co. Londonderry and he is commemorated on a Memorial Plaque in Balteagh Presbyterian Church.