Frank Waymouth gained his civilian flying license before the Second World war and was transferred from the Army to the Air Force in 1941. He trained as a wartime pilot and, perhaps due to a relatively advanced age, was given the role of flight instructor at Momona near Dunedin. He was instructing in a De Havilland Tiger Moth when it collided with another Moth in August, 1943.
FOUR KILLED.
TWO PLANES IN COLLISION.
DURING FLYING TRAINING.
(P.A.) WELLINGTON, This Day.
Four members of the Royal New Zealand Air Force lost their lives at a South Island station this morning when two aircraft collided during flying training. The men were:
Flying Officer Robert Dallas.
Joseph Campbell, whose wife is Mrs M. A. Campbell, of Mosgiel.
Leading Aircraftman Lewis Howard Ireland, whose mother is Mrs B. Ireland, of Auckland.
Flying Officer Frank Waymouth, whose wife is Mrs M. Waymouth, of Wingatui -Ashburton Guardian, 26/8/1943.
DEATHS
WAYMOUTH — On August 25, 1943, Flying Officer Frank Waymouth, R.N.Z.A.F., beloved husband of Marjorie Waymouth, late of Timaru. aged 34 years. (Result of aircraft accident). The funeral will leave our Chapel, To-day, at 2.30 p.m. for the Timaru Cemetery. (Sewell Bros.) -Timaru Herald, 27/8/1943.
FOUR AIRMEN KILLED
TRAINING PLANES
COLLIDE EVIDENCE AT INQUEST
An inquest into the deaths of two instructors and two air trainees who were killed on August 25, when two training aeroplanes from a South Island air station collided in the air, was held before Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., this morning. The victims of the accident were Flying-officer Robert Dallas Campbell, an instructor, aged 27, and Frank Waymoutb, an instructor, aged 33, and two trainees, Leslie Howard Ireland, aged 21, and Benjamin Eric Hall, aged 20. The Coroner returned a verdict that each of the four had died from a fractured skull after a collision of two aeroplanes. Sergeant J. H. Croxford conducted the proceedings for the police.
Flying-officer James Raymond Norris, medical officer at a South Island air station, said he had been called to the scene of the accident, and had examined the bodies of the four airmen. Death in each case had been instantaneous and had been due to a fracture of the skull.
Aircraftman George Robert McDonald said he was a member of the fire crew stationed near the scene of the accident. He heard a crash and saw portion of an aeroplane falling to the ground. He arrived with the crash truck, and found two completely wrecked aeroplanes on the ground, about 150yds apart. Flying conditions at the time were good, visibility being several miles. He did not know what flying exercises were being carried out when the plane collided.
William Robertson, a veterinary surgeon, said he was working on a farm near where the accident occurred. He heard a crash, and on looking up saw that two aeroplanes had collided, apparently head on. They appeared momentarily to be stationary, and then fell to the ground. He assisted in the removal of the bodies. He estimated that at the time of the crash the machines were not less than 300ft high.
Flying-officer Cedric Owen Marshall, an instructor at an Air Force station, said that on the morning of the accident he authorised flying to start at 10.30 o'clock. He did not see the aeroplanes piloted by Campbell and Waymouth take off, but he flew a machine to a place near where the accident occurred, and could say that conditions there were suitable for flying, and could not have caused the accident. He could not say what flying exercises were being carried out at the time of the accident, that being left to the discretion of the individual instructors.
The Coroner said a court of inquiry into the accident had already been held, and he had received a confidential report from it. He returned a verdict in accordance with the medical evidence. -Evening Star, 4/10/1943.
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