Meopham

The aircraft was tasked with an operation to photograph RAF airfields as part of the recently formed Photographic Development Unit (PDU). The aircraft used for the mission was the first of a number of recently acquired American built Lockheed Hudson twin-engine and twin-rudder airplanes installed with a camera and with the rear gun turret not fitted. It was painted with a camouflage marking scheme that was different to the usual RAF pattern which would have dire consequences for the four man crew. While cruising over the region of Gravesend, the twin engine aircraft was attacked and shot down by the pilots of three RAF Hawker Hurricane, engulfed in flames and dove into the ground. During the descent, the copilot was able to bail out before the aircraft crashed in a field near Meopham. All three other occupants were killed.
Crew:
F/O Sydney Dennis Slocum, pilot, †
Sgt J. A. W. Reid, copilot,
LAC John Ambrose Butcher, wireless operator & photographer, †
LAC Ronald Arno Mutton. †

The aircraft departed Le Touquet on a taxi flight to Croydon, carrying four passengers and a crew of two. While cruising above Kent, the single engine airplane entered an uncontrolled descent and crashed in a near vertical attitude in a private garden located in Meopham, some five miles south of Gravesend. The aircraft was destroyed and all six occupants were killed.
Crew:
George Lochart Henderson, pilot
Charles d'Urban Shearing, copilot.
Passengers:
Mr. Frederick Temple Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, 3rd Marquess of Dufferin and Ava,
Mrs. Rosemary Millicent Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Viscountess Ednam,
Mr. Edward Simons Ward,
Mrs. Sigrid Loeffler.