Gilmour | Andrew Patrick
Biography
Andrew Patrick Gilmour was the son of Andrew Patrick Gilmour and Annie Gilmour.
In June 1921 his parents were living at 47, St Mary Street, Woolwich, London. His father was born in 1876 in Woolwich and was a Machinist at a Manufacturer of Gun Ammunition Components at the East & West Laboratory, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich. His mother was born in 1885 in Derby. They had with them two children, young Andrew Patrick Gilmour born in 1917 and his sister Sheila Honorah Gilmour born 1919.
Andrew Gilmour married Hilda Gertrude Nayok in Woolwich in late 1942. They had a child, Margaret P Gilmour, in Woolwich in the first quarter of 1943. Andrew died just a few months later. It is thought that his wife was living in Laindon, Essex at the time of his death. She went on to marry Francis J Barker in 1949 and they had three children in Brentwood between 1950 and 1954.
His daughter, Margaret P Gilmour married Simon N Baldwin-Purry in Brentwood in 1966. They had three children between 1968 and 1973 in Brentwood, Saffron Walden and Cambridge respectively. She has since remarried.
Andrew Patrick Gilmour, pilot officer and navigator, was a member of the crew of the Stirling III BK718 which was shot down on 4th July 1943, either by Flak88 or Hayo Hermann (luftwaffepilot). They took off at 23.26 on 3th July 1943 from West Wickham and crashed at Mehlem on the westbank of the Rhine, 10 km SSE of Bonn.
The crew is buried at Overloon War Cemetery, except Sgt I.H. Norris, who managed to leave the plane and was a Prisoner of War (POW).
It is interesting to note that there is also a POW record for Andrew Patrick Gilmour – but this still shows his date of death as 4th July, 1943. It is possible that he may have still been alive after the crash and was captured but died later that same day.
The other crew members are:
Official information via findagrave.com:
Plane data: Short Stirling III
Serialnr. BK718
Call Sign: WP-M
Unit: 90 Sqdn.
Take off: 11:26 PM West Wickham airfield.
Target: Köln.
Operation: Bombing.
Shot down by FLAK.
Crashed at Bonn-Mehlem, Germany.
Buried Plot VII-D-12 Venray War Cemetery Netherlands.
Reburied 01/05/1947 Overloon War Cemetery.
Details of how Andrew came to be with this crew can be found in the extended side-story about the fate of the crew of the Stirling BK718.
