Sergeant Eric Harvey Longbottom, No. 27 Operational Training Unit, RAF.

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416004 Sergeant Eric Harvey Longbottom, No. 27 Operational Training Unit, RAF.

Australian War Memorial

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Eric Harvey Longbottom was born in Riverton, South Australia on 30 October 1916, the eldest son of Oliver and Hilda Longbottom. His younger brother Max was born the following year.

Eric attended Riverton Primary School, and Riverton District High School, where as a senior student he was a house captain.

Longbottom went to work as a clerk in the records office at Keswick Military Barracks before returning home to work as a drapery assistant with Riverton Service Stores, while his evenings were taken up studying accountancy.

Outside of work and study, he enjoyed athletics, Australian Rules football, cricket, tennis and golf. He also had a keen interest in photography.

Longbottom was a well-known and popular figure in Riverton. He was active in the town’s Methodist church community, being an officer of the church, a third degree officer in the Order of Knights and the Sunday School’s superintendent. His life motto was “the utmost for the highest.”

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Longbottom joined the Royal Australian Air Force in Adelaide on 1 March 1941. He was selected for aircrew and two weeks later, remustered for pilot training.

After attending No. 7 Elementary Flying Training School in Tasmania, and No. 1 Service Flying Training School at Point Cook, Victoria, Longbottom was awarded his flying badge and promoted to sergeant. 

He returned to South Australia for pre-embarkation leave and became engaged to his sweetheart, Jean Rowe.

Longbottom embarked for service in England on 17 November. As part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, he was one of almost 27,500 RAAF pilots, navigators, wireless operators, air gunners, and flight engineers who, throughout the course of the war, joined Royal Air Force squadrons or Australian squadrons based in Britain.

Arriving in the United Kingdom in late February 1942, Longbottom spent the next several months at Royal Air Force training schools, learning to fly four engine bombers. On 11 June he was posted to No. 27 Operational Training Unit, based at Lichfield.

On 19 July 1942, Longbottom and his crew were detailed to carry out a non-operational cross-country flight. As the pilot, Longbottom was instructed to keep his Wellington bomber at 7,000 feet.

The aircraft lifted off on time and communications were good. About 12:30 that afternoon the aircraft’s radio became unserviceable and Longbottom decided to fly below the clouds to check his position.

The aircraft had gone off course and, during its descent, the Wellington crashed into Mount Snowden, killing all on board: sergeants Rupert Bannister, Lionel Traylen, Richard Bowen, Samuel Wilson, and Eric Harvey Longbottom who was 25 years old.

It took ten days for ground crews to reach the crash site and recover the bodies.

Longbottom’s remains were laid to rest on 3 August in the Llanbeblig Public Cemetery, Caernarfon, North Wales.

The inscription on his headstone reads:

Honoured and remembered

By loved ones at home.

In God’s care.

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