Gibbison, Andrew Greenwell

Flight Sergeant (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner)

No. 424976, Royal New Zealand Air Force

Killed in an aircraft accident on Thursday 18 November 1943 (aged 22)

Buried:

Eglantine Church of Ireland Cemetery, Lisburn, Co. Down (Section E. Grave 36)

Commemorated:

Commonwealth War Graves Commission

BIOGRAPHY

Andrew Greenwell Gibbison was a son of Francis B.M. Gibbison and Coralie Gibbison (nee Carr) of Kauroa, Auckland, New Zealand.

During the Second World War Flight Sergeant Andrew Greenwell Gibbison (No. 424976) served with the Royal New Zealand Air Force and he died on 18 November 1943, along with the other three members of the crew, when their Lockheed Hudson Mark V aircraft (AE653) of No. 5 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit based at RAF Long Kesh, crashed into Strangford Lough just south of Chapel Island (off Greyabbey).  They were on a rocket-firing exercise using the submarine target at South Island in Strangford Lough.

The other three men who died in the crash were the pilot, Sergeant Walter Edward Fern; Flight Sergeant Raymond Farquhar Simpson and Flight Sergeant William Barraclough.

Flight Sergeant Andrew Greenwell Gibbison (No. 424976) was 22 when he died and he was buried in Eglantine Church of Ireland (All Saints) Cemetery, Lisburn, Co. Down.