| Admitted to: RAF Ford SSQ. St. Richards Hospital, Chichester (20/02/44). |
Date of Injury: 20/02/1944 |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| D.O.B/Age when admitted: 20/02/1923 (21) |
Cause of Incident: Flying Incident. On return from ops, removed gloves to fix oxygen intake and then closed aircraft door without putting gloves back on. |
||
| Transferred to QVH: 23/02/1944 |
Injuries: Frostbite to hands, looses 8 fingers. |
||
| No. of Operations at East Grinstead: 5 |
IDENTITY CARD
This is to certify that the patient mentioned below and whose description is stated hereon is the authorised holder of this Identity card.
| Forename: Alan |
Surname: Morgan |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Service No: 1589714 |
Nationality: British |
||
| Awards/Honours: --- |
Patient Unit: 49 Sqn |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Profession: Flight Engineer |
Patient Rank: Sgt |
||
| Death: --- |
Age at Death: --- |
||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dr Rank: |
Dr Unit: |
||
Trained as a Jig Borer/Tool Maker pre-war.
Joined the RAF in December 1942, training as a Flight Engineer.
On return from target, the main rear door was blown open. Morgan retrieved the wireless operator who had passed out from lack of oxygen, connected him to a supply, and went to close the rear door. He passed out as well and was retrieved by the bomb-aimer. In the process, Morgan touched the airframe of the plane with bare hands, which was at around -42F. His fingers had to be amputated. thumbs saved.
Despite this, Morgan worked hard strengthening his thumbs and finger stumps, and was declared fit to fly again in May 1945, being posted to the Empire Air Navigation School.
Post war engineering career resumed.
SSQ - Station Sick Quarters
We've been looking through our collections, and discovered this 1972 photograph from the East Grinstead Observer, o…