Chop Gate human remains inquest: Bones of World War Two airmen found at remote Yorkshire farm 'were moved there from another location'

RAF pilot Alfred Milne and navigator Eric Stubbs died when their Mosquito aircraft crashed in Bilsdale in October 1944, and they were buried with full military honours in their home county of Surrey.

Yet in March 2020, bones belonging to both men, who were 22 when they died, were found at Appletree Hurst Cottage in the village of Chop Gate in the North York Moors and identified following a lengthy North Yorkshire Police and Ministry of Defence investigation. A man in his 70s was arrested but was eventually released without charge.

The inquest heard that police were called to the uninhabited cottage after a family who had recently moved into the adjoining property discovered a human jawbone on an open grassed area near a shed in the paddock. The man who made the find was investigating a blockage in the septic tank when he saw the bone, and as he had medical expertise recognised it as human.

Two lower mandibles were confirmed by forensic archaeologists to date from before 1950, and pre-emptive dental work performed by the RAF on servicemen flying at high altitude was noted in teeth. There was evidence of impact injuries and discolouration from contact with a helmet or chinstrap. Fragments from a harness were located nearby.

It was established that the bones had been moved from the original crash site and had been exposed to the elements for a prolonged period.

Evidence was heard from Detective Chief Inspector Carol Kirk from North Yorkshire Police and forensic archaeologist Dr Carl Harrison, who both confirmed that the remains were classed as a secondary deposition and had been moved from another place.

Military historian Richard Allenby contacted the coroner’s office to inform them that in 2003 he had interviewed the only witness to the Mosquito crash, a farm labourer called Ken Luck, who had heard the plane’s engine ‘spluttering’ and seen its nose dip before it exploded on impact. The top-secret Highball bouncing bomb that it was carrying, designed by Barnes Wallis, to a weapons exercise in Scotland bounced into Luck’s orchard, but did not detonate and the RAF later retrieved it.

Mr Luck’s account contradicted the original assumption that pilot Milne had lost control while flying over high ground in low cloud, and led to coroner Richard Watson concluding that a mechanical failure or fuel shortage had actually caused the crash.

Information was also given about both airmen’s lives. Alfired Milne was born in London in 1921 and worked as a post officer sorter before enlisting in 1941. He was posted to Canada and rose through the ranks, eventually commissioning as a pilot officer and marrying his wife just a year before he died. They had no children, but he was survived by his sister and nephews.

Eric Stubbs, born in 1922 in Guildford, was not married and ‘disappeared’ from his family tree after the war when his sister also died childless. He worked as a local government clerk before the war. The inquest was attended by Joan and Nicola Stubbs, who are descended from a cousin.

Assistant coroner for North Yorkshire Richard Watson recorded a verdict of accidental death.

Appletree Hurst Cottage

The remote smallholding has been at the centre of media attention in the past. Until 2011, it was the home of Kenneth Ward, a noted World War Two collector and enthusiast who kept hundreds of items relating to aircraft, including parts and airframes, at the property. He welcomed other enthusiasts to visit and often gave interviews to the aviation trade press in the 1990s and 2000s. Hambleton Council even issued him with a tax bill on the belief that he was running a museum.

The Wards had lived at the farm since the early 20th century, and Kenneth remained there after the deaths of his mother and brother. The cottage was known for being ramshackle, and in 2004 he told the Northern Echo that the family were living in ‘Victorian’ conditions.

In 2011, Ward was jailed for harassing his neighbour and firearms offences after weapons that had not been deactivated were found at the cottage. He was released in 2016, but did not return to the farm and some of the collection remained there. It is believed that it has been vacant ever since.

The MOD cleared the site after the 2020 discovery and confirmed that most of the collection is now stored in a secure location, though some non-hazardous items have been returned to Ward.

The MOD also confirmed that in 1999 an informal warning was issued to Ward over his possession of a pendant believed to have belonged to a Canadian airman who died in a crash in East Yorkshire during the war. The suspected date of the offence was given as 1982, before the Protection of Military Remains Act was passed four years later. Since its adoption in law, anyone exploring an aircraft wreck site requires MOD permission.