Pilot Officer Charles Sewell Barrell was born in 1912, the son of Charles Sewell Barrell and Julia G. Barrell. His birth was registered in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA, but the family went on to reside in Hamilton, Massachusetts.
In 1940 he was training as a service pilot at the Spartan College of Aeronautics, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA, when he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, service number 102519. He was Pilot Officer attached to No.133 Squadron and was based at RAF Biggin Hill.
He died, aged 29 years, on 27 September 1941, when flying a Hurricane MkIIb aeroplane, serial number Z3335, he was turning to make a final approach to RAF Duxford, when he collided with another Hurricane MKIIb, serial number Z3828, piloted by Pilot Officer Walter Gordon Soares. Both aeroplanes crashed near Anton Hill, Fowlmere, Royston, Cambridgeshire. Both pilots were killed and were buried in adjoining graves at Brookwood Military Cemetery, Dawney Hill, Pirbright, Surrey. His grave was Plot 21, Row A, Grave 2, whilst that Pilot Officer Soares was Plot 21, Row A, Grave 1.
He was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and is also commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission's website.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
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