Kelvin Youngs, a UK based military historian, is the founder and webmaster of aircrewremembered.com The website is dedicated to recording the names and stories of military aircrew personnel who lost their lives during war and in peace. As may be expected, the focus for Kelvin has largely been on the creation and maintenance of the voluminous databases of WW2 air force personnel predominantly from Great Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Poland. From contributions Kelvin receives from families and readers worldwide, he is able to piece together the events that resulted in an aircraft (and crew’s) loss. This he documents on a page that recounts the mission, the aircraft, crew and targets and events leading to the loss of aircraft and crew, a perpetual tribute to airmen who paid the ultimate price.
In the course of reuniting medals, cases that involve airmen are routinely advise to Kelvin to add to his database and to research the action and loss of crew. After receiving the following email from Angela R. of Hamilton, I passed the details to Kelvin. Angela wrote:
“I am trying to find the owner or family of the New Zealand Memorial Cross, WW2 medal. This fell out I think of a wall unit I purchased. Please see attached photos of the medal. There is a name on the back with a service number, NZ405240. SJT. D. J. Dempsey.”
“I do not want any details of the owner or family if you find them. I am happy to send the medal wherever you want as I know confidentiality is important to some people. I just did not wanted to throw the metal out is it a sterling silver and it’s got a little bit of weight to it and must belong to someone….”
Angela forwarded the cross to MRNZ which we found to be in very good condition although minus its purple neck ribbon and case it would have been issued in. Unlike the WW1 Memorial Plaque (‘Death Penny’) the Memorial Cross was able to be worn by the dead serviceman’s Next of Kin. The Cross was generally given to female Next of Kin of any mobilised military person who had been killed or had died in service, whether in NZ or overseas. Traditionally a serviceman’s wife or mother were the priority recipients. If both were living, each would receive a Cross. If the wife or mother were both deceased, the eldest daughter would become the recipient, and so on down the family chain.
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Kelvin responded to my inquiry with the startling news that he had previously researched Sgt-Pilot Dennis James Dempsey and the circumstances of his crash. Kelvin said that back in 2016 he had been contacted by a New Zealander (Chris G. of Hamilton) who had sought information about Sgt. Dempsey for a tribute he was preparing to deliver at a forth coming Anzac Day service to be held in Dempsey’s home town of Pio Pio.
With this information I managed to find Chris who had been employed as a Communications Manager, the details of which had been appended on Kelvin’s 2016 email. Having found the business Chris had been employed with, I was informed he had left the company some time ago however was thought to still be working in the general area. The very helpful Communications Manager who had succeeded Chris resolved to find out where he was and get back to me. As good as her word, I was soon able to get in touch with Chris. Did he recall his Sgt. Dempsey research, and had he made contact with any of his descendants I asked? Yes, and no, however he did know someone who may be able to help me locate a descendant. Chris put me in touch with the Waitomo Caves Museum and Discovery Centre education officer Ross O’Halloran who apart from being a Territorial soldier, was also keenly interested in the military history of the region. Ross was well aware of Sgt. Dempsey’s history and said that the Dempsey family descendants still resided in the area. He would find out their details for me.
Sergeant (Pilot) Dennis James Dempsey
Born at Pio Pio on 18 September 1919, the son of James Dempsey and Annie Stuart Arawa BREEN, Dennis James Dempsey was a Wellington Post & Telegraph Cadet who had spent three months as a Territorial soldier in the New Zealand Army (NZ Corps of Signals) prior to enlisting applying for a Short Service Commission in the Royal Air Force. Dennis was enlisted as an Airman Pilot u/t (under training) on 22 December 1940 at RNZAF Station Levin, the home of the Ground Training School through which all aircrew trainees passed to receive basic military ground training. Following the completion of this training Dennis, began flying training assessments on 9 Feb 1941 to determine his suitability for pilot training. He subsequently joined Pilot’s Course No.10c at No.4 Elementary Flying Training School (4EFTS) Whenuapai.
L-R – Back: AA Fraser, EM Castles, V Arthur, DG Claasen, RE Brain, DJ Dempsey, WA Shannon, EB Hewitt, O Haynes, JF Keane, WB Tidy.
Front: LJ Carter, KP Andrews, SH Gunnings, ED Crossley, PL Elliott, KJ Holdaway, FH Drew, JE Sanders, CA McDonald, CF Hawker, WL Kauter, CE Papps.
Inset: PWD Finlayson, GA Williams, RS Bruce.
After three months flying training including additional experience in air gunnery skills at No.3 Service Flying Training School (3SFTS), RNZAF Station Ohakea, Dennis graduated as a fully qualified pilot and was awarded his Pilot’s Badge (“wings”) on 5 May 1941. On 14 June 1941 he was promoted to Sergeant (Pilot) and embarked on the Maetsuycker at Wellington on 22 July bound for Southhampton via Singapore.
Arriving at Bournemouth on 3 Sep 1941, Sgt. (P) Dempster was posted to No.11 Operational Training Unit (11 OTU) on 16 September, a unit of No. 6 Group, RAF Bomber Command based at RAF Station Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire. By the time Sgt.(P) Dempsey had concluded his operational conversion training he had amassed a total of 202 flying hours and was in the throes of his final night flying training exercises before being transferred to an operational bomber squadron. On 15 December 1941, Sgt. Dempsey (22) was No.2 Pilot in Wellington 1c x3170 piloted by another Kiwi, NZ41363 Sgt. (P) Albert Leonard SANDERSON, a 22 year old pilot from Dunedin, plus four other crewmen – Observer R74283 Sgt. Harold GITTENS (24) RCAF; Wireless Op/Air Gunner 916275 Sgt. Basil GROVE-PALMER (20) RAFVR; Wireless Op/Air Gunner 404636 Sgt. William MYLES (31) RAAF, and Air Gunner 1202558 Sgt. Peter LISTER (21) RAFVR.
The crew were engaged in a cross-country night flight. At about 2300 hours the aircraft was observed to be descending at high speed in a shallow dive when it flew into the ground, a ploughed field, at Whittlesey Mere, Huntingdonshire. Whittlesey Mere is about 60 kilometers due north of RAF Bassingbourn. The aircraft disintegrated on impact – killing all on board. The crew were subsequently buried side by side in the Bassingbourn Cum Kneesworth Cemetery, Cambridgeshire.
AIRCREW REMEMBERED.COM …. more about the crew and the loss of the aircraft can be read here: https://aircrewremembered.com/sanderson-albert-leonard.html
~ Lest We Forget ~
While waiting for Ross to come back to me, I put together Sgt. Dempsey’s family tree, most of whom had remained concentrated around Te Awamutu where Dennis had grown up. I narrowed the field down to those Dempsey family members who had still been alive in 2010 (the limit of Ancestry’s records). As far as I could tell the only Dempsey males who was a direct descendant of Dennis’s and potentially still alive was his youngest sibling and brother, Leo Harold Dempsey.
I also had some more questions for Alison on the circumstances of her coming into the possession of the Cross. Alison related to me that several months prior, she had purchased a sideboard that had been was advertised for sale by the Jones family of Te Awamutu, and still had their phone number. Alison said she had carted the sideboard back to her home in Te Kuiti in small hatchback car. It was whilst unloading the sideboard in her garage that she heard a ‘clink’ of something hitting the number plate as she eased it out. After getting the side board out and standing on its own, she looked around for the source of the sound and found the cross under the car.
Ross came back with a family name – Denise Jones. This together with the phone number Alison had given me put me in touch with the seller of the sideboard, Denise and her husband Kevin Jones of Te Awamutu.
From whence it came …
Denise Jones (nee Dempsey) was the daughter of Leo Dempsey, the last direct descendant of the Dempsey family that I had on my Dempsey family tree. Sadly Leo had passed away last at the Hill View Rest Home & Hospital in Te Kuiti where he had been since 2021. Leo had been the owner of the sideboard which his daughter Denise inherited when Leo moved to Hill View.
Denise said that while her dad Leo had been in possession of the sideboard, a photograph of Dennis Dempsey together with his Memorial Cross had always had pride of place on the top of the sideboard. Denise had continued that tradition when she inherited the sideboard. It would appear that at some point while the side board was in Denise’s home, the memorial cross had slipped into the joinery of the sideboard and was only dislodged by its transport and handling whilst being removed from Alison’s wee car.
… so shall it return.
Denise was thrilled to learn the Memorial Cross had been found and was on its way back to Te Awamutu, no doubt to a more secure position than the top of a sideboard. Since then Alison and Denise have been in contact to share the experience.
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My thanks to Alison for having the foresight to contact MRNZ, and to Kelvin of aircrewremembered.com for initiating the connection MRNZ was able to reconnect with to locate Dennis Dempsey’s descendant family.
Thanks to Aircrew Remembered webmaster Kelvin Youngs for creating the Memorial Page.
TE AWAMUTU NEWS
Airman’s medal found
16 MAY 2024 • BY CHRIS GARDNER
https://www.teawamutunews.nz/2024/05/airmans-medal-found/
Published Post medal tally is 514 (this may fluctuate until the posted total exceeds 519).
Grand Total of medals reunited with families is now 781