For a Brit in Arlington

[beepbeepherecomesthe]

Hey so if y'all don't know I, BeepBeep, am a professional tour guide in Washington DC. I love it and it's my dream job, but my favorite part about it is giving tours of Arlington National Cemetery. I've had some cool opportunities to do things in Arlington (see my wreath laying post from January), and I got to do something cool last week that some of y'all might find interesting too - especially since we have WWII fans and a good number of Brits here... (pics at bottom of this post and more in the following comments)

A friend reached out to me and told me a woman had gotten in touch with her because she needed someone to lay flowers at a grave in Arlington National Cemetery. The flowers were to be laid at the grave site of a British pilot who had died in a plane crash in Australia in 1945. The British pilot - named Roy Cannon - flew Spitfires out of Darwin, Australia during World War II. But in February of 1945 he hitched a ride with a US Army Air Forces B-24 bomber, named the Beautiful Betsy, on it's way to Brisbane, Australia. Roy was headed to Brisbane in order to marry his fiance, Daphne, in four days. However, during the evening of February 26, the Beautiful Betsy, with it's six American crew members and two British passengers, went missing over Queensland.

Numerous searches were conducted to locate this missing plane, but after one year of searching with no results, the crew was declared dead. Fast-forward nearly fifty years - in 1994 an Australian park ranger spotted a glinting object on the hillside of Kroombit Tops National Park. After hiking out to this hillside, the ranger had finally discovered the remains of the Beautiful Betsy. A US Army unit was flown in from Hawaii to help identify the remains at the crash site. It was decided that all identifiable remains would be buried together in Arlington National Cemetery, here in the United States. In September of 1995 the Brits and Americans were buried together, in a group grave in Arlington (picture from the funeral in comment below).

The flowers I placed on Roy's grave were of course for Roy and his comrades, but they were also for Roy's brother - who is still alive and lives in England. I'm honestly not sure if he's ever been able to make the trip over here to the US to visit his brother's final resting place. But by placing flowers on Roy's grave, all parties involved in this task let Roy's brother know that we are thankful for the sacrifice of Roy, his family, and everyone from the Greatest Generation, and I hope that brings him some comfort.

Roy's grave below:

Roy was either 23 or 24 years old when he was died.

The Beautiful Betsy plane:

[beepbeepherecomesthe]

The crash site of the Beautiful Betsy:

An info plaque at the Australian park with more info on the rest of the crew:

The funeral at Arlington in 1995:

[Deleted]

Incredible story Beep. Thanks for honoring Roy and the rest of the crew. The farther away we get from WWII the more it will be forgotten and hopefully not repeated.

[|H|Fenrir]

Good job that man, do you know the brother's name?

[beepbeepherecomesthe]

Aug 21, 2022 6:23:50 GMT -5 |H|Fenrir said:

Good job that man, do you know the brother's name?

I actually don't know. There were like three people between me and his brother. I honestly did all the research myself, and the woman who was my contact said my post on facebook was shared with the brother.

And yes Jim, I feel the same way. Whenever I have student tour groups here I'm quick to tell them that if we see an Honor Flight or just any vets at the war memorials in DC that they should go speak with them. You can only learn so much from a textbook, and these vets are a first hand resource.

[|H|Fenrir]

I have visited the US Cemetery at Madingley near Cambridge over here and also the one above Omaha Beach in France. I think they are the only two US ones in Europe as you generally repatriate your fallen.

On the other hand, we don't which is why there are British War Cemeteries dotted all over the world. We have an organisation called the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) that administers them all. The larger ones are all built in the same way and the headstones are all the same style even down to single ones in odd churchyards. I'll have to dig out some photos.

These are some of the ones I took at Madingley

[beepbeepherecomesthe]

Very cool. I love see how other countries do military cemeteries. I've found some interesting foreign headstones here in Arlington.. my favorite so far is the Dutch military style headstones. There are just over 70 foreign military members in Arlington. I found two British women from WWII not long ago too.