This is the story of two tragic events from the 1960s and 1930s which occurred near to each other in Willesden.
The Willesden Plane Crash
At 7.10 on the evening of Wednesday 29 May 1963 people saw a light aircraft flying erratically low over Willesden. It attempted to climb before it suddenly plunged, and with a loud explosion and tremendous flash crashed into a large three-storey block of flats called Marlow Court at 224 Willesden Lane.
The emergency services quickly sent eight fire engines and three ambulances to the scene. They found the aircraft had crashed on the roof, breaking through the ceiling of Flat No.31. The fuselage of the red and white Auster was embedded in the lift shaft, leaving the tail intact. Firemen had to use a portable crane and cutting equipment. It took over an hour to reach the two passengers who tragically had died on impact.
Fortunately, the occupant of Flat 31 had just gone out for dinner, and none of the other people in the block were injured. These included Dick and Hilda Downes, the parents of the boxer and former World Middleweight Champion Terry Downes who lived about ten minutes away in 48 Brondesbury Park. Terry’s dad who was watching TV, heard the crash and thought a water heater geyser had blown up. Occupants were evacuated because of the danger from leaking petrol, but were allowed to return home later that evening, with a police warning: ‘Don’t strike any matches’! 
The Auster aircraft, G-AFWO
Witnesses saw the aircraft appear from low cloud in a shallow dive, then circle and try to climb. But at the top of the second climb the engine seemed to cut out and it crashed on the roof.
The two men who died were Robert Innes Campbell (29) and his friend Peter Robert O’Sullivan (26), both Australian dentists from New South Wales who had moved to Essex about five years earlier. They were married with young children. Campbell lived in Handsworth Avenue Highams Park and O’Sullivan lived in Maybank Court South Woodford. The plane had been hired at 5.26 from a flying club at Stapleford Tawney near Romford Essex for an evening flight.
The second accident occurred about 30 years earlier.
‘The most treacherous of trees’
In 1935, the grounds of Brondesbury Manor House were being prepared for development with road building and clearances, including tree felling. Sunday, 2 June had been bright and sunny, when Reginald and Georgina Streeton decided on an evening walk to the tree-lined street, Brondesbury Park. They lived at 51 Denmark Street in South Kilburn, not far away, but in a densely populated neighbourhood with no green space. They went with their two daughters, Annie Lily aged 8 and pushing two-year-old Sheila Sarah in her pram.
The 1921 census shows their families were neighbours. Reginald’s father was living at No.51 Willesden High Road a few doors away from Georgina’s family at No.65. Her father George Sherring Smith was an electrical engineer. Reginald had been a bit of a tear away when he was younger and it’s possible George helped his future son-in-law decide on a career. Reginald and Georgina moved to Chelmsford where they married in 1926, their children were born and Reginald was employed at Compton Parkinson, an electrical engineering firm. They had only been back in Kilburn for about three months.
Seemingly unimportant decisions can have devasting consequences. It was still sunny, and Georgina suggested they cross to the shady side of the road. They were passing under a large elm when there was a loud crack and with ‘a sound like rushing wind’, the tree toppled over. Georgina had been walking with their two children a short distance behind Reginald. Hearing the noise, he turned and rushed back to help his wife, but they were trapped under the tree as it fell. A branch fell on the pram and Sheila was bruised, but Lily was unhurt, crying, ‘Mummy is under here’! It took an hour to reach her parents who were both dead.
Timber dealer Gordon Ferguson and Mr Venables, a tree feller, both gave evidence at the inquest. Ferguson said that the day before the accident, the earth was cleared at the base of the elm tree, and some roots were removed. Venables in charge of removing the tree, said ‘he had a long experience of tree felling, and in his judgment the elm tree was safe in every way’. Sadly, this was not so. A forestry expert told the Daily Mirror: ‘The trouble about the elm is that while outwardly perfectly healthy, it may be in such a condition that it will collapse at any time’. Dutch elm disease was making matters worse.
The Coroner asked the jury for their verdict and they expressed the view that there had been negligence.
The Coroner questioned the foreman: You do not mean manslaughter?
Foreman: Negligence short of manslaughter in leaving the tree in that dangerous condition.
Coroner: I am rather surprised at your verdict, but it is yours. Who do you say was guilty of negligence?
Foreman: The tree feller.
The Coroner seemed to think criminal charges could have been brought against Venables, but in the light of the verdict, he could do nothing. ‘Deaths from misadventure’ was recorded with a rider that the tree feller was guilty of negligence, but that it fell short of criminal negligence.
Sheila and Lily were adopted by recently married Percy and Winifred Witcombe. Winifred was Georgina’s younger sister. In 1939, the Witcombes and the girls were living in Willesden at 27 Garden Way.
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