Seventy-five years after a distinguished Spitfire pilot crashed during a training flight over Cornwall, his remains have been finally found, identified and returned to his family to be laid to rest, an inquest heard.

Sqn Ldr Daniel Cremin, 25, was killed while testing new Spitfire planes on a clear moonlit night over the far south-west of Britain on 24 March 1942, the inquest in Truro was told.

His family were sent a sealed coffin purportedly carrying his remains and he was buried at Wardour Roman Catholic cemetery in Tisbury, Wiltshire.

But in June last year, Stuart Palmer, a metal detectorist, discovered the Australian-born pilot’s bones after digging down 4ft (1.2 metres) at the crash site near St Erth, Hayle.

Palmer called Devon and Cornwall police, who worked with the Ministry of Defence and local archaeologists to recover the remains.

They were confirmed as those of Cremin after DNA testing with his son Mark, 78, who now believes that the original remains provided to the family were simply sandbags.

A second service was arranged at the Wiltshire cemetery and Cremin’s remains were interred in his original grave with military honours in November.

Describing the inquest as very interesting and unusual, Barrie van den Berg, the assistant coroner for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly, found the pilot’s death had been accidental.

The coroner said: “Daniel Edward Cremin died as a result of a mid-air collision with another Spitfire. The death occurred at Frythens farm, St Erth, and his remains were only discovered 70-odd years later.

“The inquiry into his death makes it clear that the cause of death is an accident and the inquest is going to record that.”

The inquest heard Palmer, who researches crash sites from the second world war, contacted police at 10am on 26 June last year.

The detectorist had dug down at the farm and found human remains. Photographs of the remains were sent to experts, who confirmed that Palmer had discovered part of a pelvis.

The crash site was known and police contacted the MoD, who began investigating. On 27 July, further excavations took place and local archaeologists from Cornwall council discovered other bones.

Police took possession of the remains until DNA testing confirmed they were those of Cremin in September 2017.



DS Nigel Green, of Devon and Cornwall police, said records showed Cremin, in Spitfire AB462, took off from Portreath, where No 66 Squadron was based, at 9.20pm on 24 March 1942.



Another Australian pilot, Sgt William Norman, took off in Spitfire AB496. Both planes were “the latest versions of the Spitfire” at the time, Green said.

“The planes collided in mid-air,” the officer told the inquest. “Both pilots were killed and the wreckage landed in two adjacent fields.”

A board of inquiry took place on 27 March that year and found that Norman “misjudged” the distance between his and Cremin’s Spitfires.

“Sgt Norman’s plane proceeded to nose-dive straight into the ground, while Sqn Ldr Cremin’s plane span down as it lost a wing,” Green said. “The board of inquiry found it was a tragic flying accident. He misjudged the distance flying quite fast and quite low.”

The inquest was read the air operations book for 66 Squadron for the date of the crash.



It read: “Another Cornish spring day. Army cooperation flights, air to ground firing and cine-gun practice was carried out during the day together with routine patrols.

“Sqn Ldr Cremin and Sgt Norman practised dusk landings. They took off again at 21.20 hours on a clear moonlit night for night flying practice.

“They collided near St Erth and both were killed. The planes landed in adjacent fields and were burnt.

“The … evidence of a member of the local home guard who heard a crash and saw one plane spinning down points to the conclusion that they were formatting and hit in mid-air. They crashed at 22.05 hours.”

Cremin was born in Sydney in 1917 and enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force in 1936. He was commissioned in the Royal Air Force two years later after being part of a pilot exchange scheme between Britain and Australia.

In 1938 he served in the Middle East, being promoted to flight lieutenant two years later. During that time, he met Patricia Whitemore near Cairo and they secretly married in 1939.

She returned to her family in Wiltshire when war broke out. Their son, Mark, was born in February 1940 but Cremin remained on duty in the Middle East.

He won a Distinguished Flying Cross in 1941 for his bravery during the siege of Habbaniya in Iraq. That Christmas, he was able to return to Wiltshire to be with his wife and meet his baby son but then went to Portreath in Cornwall.

The inscription on Cremin’s grave reads: “He left the vivid air signed with his honour.” His wife lived in Tisbury until her death in 1974.

His grandson was named Daniel Mark Cremin, in memory of his fallen grandfather.

Mark Cremin said: “It has somehow come to a conclusion for me. It’s now all in one place and drawn together.”