RAF 525 Squadron's Vickers Warwick III (#BV 247) aircraft, with fourteen air crew members and passengers aboard, had taken off from RAF Station St. Mawgan, Newquay, Cornwall, on a scheduled service flight (England to Algiers Maison Blance airport, via Gibraltar), when it exploded in mid-air and crashed into Watergate Bay near Newquay Bay. All 14 on board the aircraft perished in the crash. The Warwick was thought to be carrying several top-secret agents, military advisers, linguists and top-secret documents, as well as thousands of £100 bills and possibly boxes of gold (thought to be for use in helping to finance European underground groups).

The passengers included two French officers enroute to meet with General Charles DeGaulle in Cairo; two Polish couriers enroute to Warsaw; one senior staff officer enroute to Cairo; one Greek expert enroute to Greece; one Hungarian/Canadian enroute to Hungary on an S. O. E. mission; three S. O. E. officers; and one Russian-speaking MI6 officer enroute to Yugoslavia to meet with Tito partisans.

The 525 Squadron members who perished in this accident were:

RCAF Flying Officer Harold Calven AUSTEN,

RAFVR Flying Officer Albert George Tracey GARDINER,

RCAF Flying Officer Arthur Douglas GAVEL,

RAF Pilot Officer George William LAMB,

RAFVR Flying Officer Noel Spencer NICKLIN,

RAFVR Flight Sergeant Michael Kingston ROWE and

RAF Squadron Leader William Godfrey TILEY.

The passengers were:-

Lieutenant Colonel Ivor Watkins BIRTS,

RAF Air Commodore George Lionel Seymour DAWSON-DAMER, Viscount CARLOW,

Lieutenant Colonel Stanley CASSON,

Kapitan Edmund GÓJSKI,

Kapral Józef KRÓL,

Lieutenant Stephen MAITLAND (using the alias, Lieutenant Stephen MATE)

(He is thrice listed on the CWGC: Steve Mate (Civilian), Stephen Mate (General List) and Stephen Maitland [Alias]),

Major Thomas Percival WARD and

Roger A. A. BAUDOIN/BAUDOUIN.

From the Canadian Virtual War Memorial-

Military Service:-

Rank: Flying Officer

Service Number: J/23107

Age: 23

Force: Air Force

Unit: Royal Canadian Air Force

DIVISION: 525 RAF Squadron [MOTTO: Vinciendo Vincimus ('We link together to conquer.')]

Son of George William and Vera Bell (née Campbell) Gavel of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada; brother of Murray W. Gavel of Swift Current.

Flying Officer Arthur Douglas Gavel is commemorated on Page 313 of Canada's Second World War Book of Remembrance.

He is also commemorated by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

POSTSCRIPT:-After the crash on 17 April a number of bodies were recovered, but the remains of pilot F/O Gavel were not identified at that time. Later on in 1944 a body was found at sea, but because it could not be identified it was laid to rest in a grave in the Fairpark Cemetery, St. Columb Minor, Cornwall, England (Plot: Grave 687); and, as was the custom for unidentified bodies recovered from the sea, the grave was marked by a headstone which read:-

'A Sailor of the Second World War

Merchant Navy

24 April 1944

Known Unto God'

Forty years following this aircraft accident, in 1984, Chief Inspector Derek FOWKES (1927-2007), a well-known and respected Cornwall policeman, began investigating the Warwick crash. After a lot of research involving military, medical and dental experts, and consultation with F/O Gavel's brother (from Saskatchewan, Canada), it was determined that the unknown sailor's grave was actually the grave of F/O A. D. Gavel.

Finally, in 1988, Flying Officer Arthur Douglas Gavel was re-interred in Plot 687 with full military honours, including a Royal Air Force honour guard; a new headstone, his name carved into it, stood in place above his grave.