Lest We Forget - Moose Jaw Son Dies In Malta Crash

By Richard Dowson

It must have been a very difficult time for the parents of Pilot Officer Maurice McAllister Kempton, J/9516, RCAF when they received word of the death of their son.

They had lost their son, Eric Clifford Kempton, an employee of National Light and Power in a truck accident west of Moose Jaw on April 14, 1942, probably while on a work assignment.

Eric was the oldest in the family, born in 1913. He was age 28 at the time of his death and is buried in the Rosedale Cemetery in Moose Jaw. Neither Maurice nor Eric were married.

Richard Kempton of Moose Jaw - Photo Courtesy Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Maurice completed grade one to eight at King George School, Moose Jaw and graduated from Central Collegiate, Moose Jaw. He studied Electrical Engineering at the University of Saskatchewan for a couple of years. He came back to Moose Jaw and worked at the BA Refinery. He enlisted in the RCAF at Regina in 1941.

Their parents were Clifford Forge Kempton (d1956) and Mary Kempton (d1967) are also buried in the Rosedale Cemetery. Their son Maurice is buried in the Malta (Capuccini) Naval Cemetery, Malta.

The Grave Reference is Protected Section (Men’s). Plot F. Coll. grave 104, a common grave for all four crewmen killed on board the Wellington.

Flying Officer Maurice McAllister Kempton, RCAF, J/9516, Navigator on a 458 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force Wellington was killed in a flying accident on the night of February12/13, 1943. His Wellington Bomber developed engine trouble while on patrol over the Mediterranean.

While making an emergency landing at the Luqa airfield the Wellington overshot the runway and crashed into the quarry at the end of the runway. It caught fire killing four of the six-man crew.

The Crewmen Killed were:

Pilot Officer Lawrence Harry Gleason, J17063, Pilot and Captain, Age 25, son of Harry and Agnes Myrtle Lizella (Pollock) Gleason, Canora, Saskatchewan

Flying Officer Maurice McAllister Kempton, J/9516, Navigator, Age 29, Son of Clifford Forge Kempton and Mary Kempton, of Moose Jaw

W.O.II W.Op./Air Gnr. Peter Edwyn Elkford Brown, Service Number R/92308, Age 32; son of Peter John and Gladys Beatrice Baron Brown, of Chilliwack, British Columbia

Sergeant Harold Ernest Stanley, Service Number: R/91441, age 22, W.Op./Air Gnr., son of Frank X. Stanley and Eva May Stanley, of Minna, Nigeria.

All the men are buried in the Common Grave, Prot. Sec. (Men’s). Plot F. Coll. grave 104, Malta (Capuccini) Naval Cemetery, Malta.

This photo is from the CVWM site. The reference suggests it was sent to Maurice Kempton’s mother.

One assumes ‘Drew’ is on the far left, and was probably the second pilot. The crew has six members and only four were killed in the crash. Only the names of those killed are included in this story.

Althoug pure conjecture, a fifth crewman may have been badly burned and died later.

All four killed are buried in a common grave. Based on another photo, the man standing third from the left is the Pilot, Lawrence Harry Gleason, J/17063, from Canora, Saskatchewan.

Larry Gleason In Malta - Photo Courtesy Canadian Virtual War Museum

Written on the back of the photo: “Maurice was Flying Officer Navigator in charge of this plane, a Wellington Bomber, which crashed at night. All burnt up except Drew (far left) who wrote me last week.”

So why was Maurice Kempton and othe Canadians part of the 458 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)?

Early in the war there was a shortage of air crews and it was not uncommon for aircrew from different Commonwealth countries to be ‘mixed’. At one point 458 Squadron RAAF had mostly Canadian aircrews and the Commanding Officer was a South African.

Letter To Lawrence Gleason’s Mother Describing The Crash - Photo Courtey Canadian Virtual War Museum