Halliwell, J H (Joseph Henry)

Halliwell, J H (Joseph Henry)
Lieutenant Joseph Henry Halliwell (Joe) was the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Halliwell, Railway View, Southport; husband of Olga C. Halliwell, of Bondi, New South Wales, Australia.
Joseph Halliwell had been in the Royal Navy and then the Fleet Air Arm for approximately five years. Much of his time was spent in Australia, where he met his wife to be Olga, he had only been married a few months.
Joe had also been present in Tokyo Bay with the American Fleet when the Japanese signed the Armistice, ending the Second World War.[1] At some stage afterwards he was transferred back to the United Kingdom to H.M.S. Gannet.
On the 29th of October 1946 Lieutenant Joseph Henry Halliwell and a Canadian pilot, Sub-Lieutenant (A) Robert Mallory Aitken[2] took off from Eglinton airfield in a Miles M-19 Master II training plane.[3] They were only a few miles into their flight when, for reasons unknown the Master II plunged into the sea off the Irish Coast. Neither man survived.
Joseph and Robert served at H.M.S. Gannet, which was a land base in and just outside the village of Eglinton. It was commissioned as part of the Fleet Air Arm on the 15th of May 1943. The base had been formerly run by the Royal Air Force since 1941 and would remain active until 1959. The airbase took a vital part in the defence of the Northern approaches, in the battle of the Atlantic throughout the war.
Date of Death: 29/10/1946 (Aged 22)
Service: Lieutenant (A), H.M.S. Gannet. Royal Navy, 788 Naval Air Squadron.
Service Number:
Burial Location: Faughanvale (Saint Canice) Church of Ireland Churchyard, Grave 24.
[1] Japanese signed the Armistice, the surrender of Imperial Japan was announced by Japanese Emperor Hirohito on August 15 and formally signed on September 2, 1945.
[2] Sub-Lieutenant (A) Robert Mallory Aitken (Aged 24) had transferred to the Fleet Air Arm from the Royal Canadian Airforce. He was laid to rest in Wigan Cemetery, Sec. P.2. Ward 2. Grave 53.
[3] Miles M-19 Master II was a two-seater trainer plane that made its first flight during the 31st of March 1939. There are no complete versions of this plane in existence today.