Second World War British Royal Navy Medal
Group of Three - Acting Sub-Lieutenant Thomas William Winterbottom, Royal Naval
Volunteer Reserve - Fleet Air Arm Corsair Pilot Lost at Sea on 28th March 1944
- Former Wealdstone FC Footballer
1939-45 Star – unnamed as issued
Atlantic Star – unnamed as issued
War Medal 1939-45 – unnamed as issued
With three original waxed medal packets and Royal Navy
postal box of issue addressed to Mr. T. S. Winterbottom, 172 Kenmore Avenue,
Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex.
Thomas William Winterbottom
was born on 9th October 1923, the son of Thomas Stanley Winterbottom (born
1897) and Alice Winterbottom (born 1897), of Kenton, Middlesex. His father was
employed as a railway clerk, and the family lived at 172 Kenmore Avenue,
Kenton, where the 1939 Register records Thomas, then aged 15, living with
his parents and still attending school.
As a young man, Winterbottom was a keen footballer and
played for Wealdstone Football Club, having initially represented the
club's reserve side. During the 1941–42 season, he was called upon to make
three appearances for the first team in the Herts and Middlesex League. He made
his debut on 27th September 1941, aged just 17, in a 5–2 away victory
against Tufnell Park. His third and final first-team appearance came on 18th
October 1941, in an away fixture against Enfield. Winterbottom was also a
member of the club's committee, and his name is remembered among those
associated with Wealdstone FC who lost their lives during the Second World War.
Following his footballing career, Winterbottom joined
the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve, becoming a pilot in the Royal Navy's
Fleet Air Arm. He subsequently attained the rank of Acting Sub-Lieutenant
(Air) and was posted to 732 Naval Air Squadron, serving under the
administrative establishment HMS Saker in the United States.
HMS Saker was the Royal Navy's shore-based
accounting establishment for personnel serving in the United States,
established during the substantial wartime expansion of the Fleet Air Arm and
the acquisition of American-built naval aircraft under the Lend-Lease programme.
732 Naval Air Squadron had
formed on 23rd November 1943 at the Royal Naval Air Section, United States
Naval Air Station Brunswick, Maine. It operated as an Operational Training Unit
for Fleet Air Arm fighter pilots who had already undertaken flying instruction
at American naval establishments. The squadron was equipped with the
American-built Vought F4U Corsair, a powerful single-seat carrier
fighter, operating both Corsair Mk.I and Mk.II aircraft. Its training programme
prepared pilots for the demanding requirements of flying high-performance
aircraft from aircraft carriers.
Winterbottom was serving with 732 Squadron at
Brunswick when, on 28th March 1944, he disappeared during a flying
training exercise. The Fleet Air Arm casualty records identify him as the pilot
of a Vought Corsair and record that he was lost without trace during
a training flight at sea.
He was subsequently recorded as missing, presumed
killed, aged just 20. His aircraft and remains were not recovered, and he
has no known grave.
Acting Sub-Lieutenant Thomas William Winterbottom is
commemorated on the Lee-on-Solent Memorial, Hampshire, Bay 5, Panel 7,
which commemorates members of the Fleet Air Arm who died during the Second
World War and have no known grave.
His original Royal Navy campaign medal box was
addressed to his father, Thomas Stanley Winterbottom, at 172 Kenmore
Avenue, Kenton, Harrow, Middlesex. This is the same family address recorded in
the 1939 Register, five years before Thomas William Winterbottom's death.
His name is also preserved in the commemorative
records of Wealdstone Football Club, recognising the young footballer who made
three first-team appearances before joining the Royal Navy and losing his life
during the war.
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