Elusive photo of Kiwi WWII airman tracked down

Warrant officer Edward Lindsay Darrell accidentally drowned at Lough Erne in Fermanagh. 

A relation of a New Zealand World War II airman has located his elusive picture with the help of the Salvation Army.  Pete Darrell came across a portrait of warrant officer Edward Lindsay Darrell in uniform amongst the estate of Edward’s sister Violet, which was in the care of the Salvation Army after she died alone in Wellington in 2003.

Northern Ireland based Bryan Johnston was looking for a photo of 22-year-old Edward, who accidentally drowned at Lough Erne in County Fermanagh during September 1944. He was one of 26 Kiwi airmen who died in Northern Ireland during the war.  Bryan is displaying photos of the 26 men at The Ballance House, Glenavy, Co Antrim. Now headquarters of the Ulster New Zealand Trust it was the birthplace and home farm of John Ballance,14th Premier of New Zealand between 1891-93. The Liberal PM, who ensured NZ women were the first in the world to have a vote.

Only Edward Darrell’s photo remained missing from the montage of 26 despite help from the New Zealand Defence Force and the High Commission in London.  The just located album belonging to Edward Darrell, including the sought after photo, revealed that he enjoyed life with the RNZAF, training in Canada and then deployment to west Africa and the UK.

Born in March 1922 in Australia, Edward came to New Zealand as a child and attended South Wellington Public School.  Before joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force in 1941, he was employed from March 1936 as a cabinet maker, later joining Woolworths, first as a storeman and then a clerk in its head office. 

During the war, Edward was a wireless operator on a Lockheed Hudson reconnaissance aircraft. Ironically and sadly, surviving wartime flying on active service only to drown off-duty in Lough Erne, where swimming was a popular recreation with the many servicemen and women based in wartime NI.

He was laid to rest with fully military honours in the Parish Churchyard, Irvinestown, County Fermanagh. 

UNZT expresses deep appreciation to Bryan Johnston for his extensive research in completing the 26-man montage of deceased RNZAF airmen.

 Article courtesy of Rodney Magowan based partly on information recently published in The Post, Wellington's premier daily newspaper