Cliff-top memorial for lost crew

The bomber crashed near Little Langdale, in Cumbria

A permanent memorial to the crew of a World War II bomber is to be set up at the site where it crashed in the Lake District in 1944.

Eight crew members, seven Canadians and one Briton, died on Great Carrs after getting lost in bad weather.

Representatives from the RAF and the Canadian embassy will take part in the rededication ceremony at the site, near Little Langdale, on Armistice Day.

The Vicar of Coniston, the Rev Mark East, will officiate at the ceremony.

The Halifax Mark V bomber was on a night navigation exercise from Topcliffe in Yorkshire when it ran into thick cloud.

Appropriate tribute

The pilot descended but the bomber crashed near the summit of Great Carrs.

Squadron Leader Tony Parrini has campaigned for the memorial.

He said: "There has been a great deal of interest in this project because there has never been a formal memorial to these brave men at the site which is the most visited World War II aircraft crash in Cumbria.

"We want to put that right, and doing so on Armistice Day seemed the most appropriate way of going about it."

The wreckage remains at the site and a team of Air Cadets built a cairn in which they placed a container with the crew members' names, but it disappeared.

The crew were J A Johnston, 27; R N Whitley, 20; F A Bell, 33; H E Pyche, 21; D F Titt, 19; G Riddoch RCAF, 20; and Sgt C G Whittingstall RCAF, 20, of the Royal Canadian Air Force and W B Ferguson, 19, of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.