Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry Robert Morton, Service Number 410078, enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force in November 1941 at just 18 years of age at Melbourne, Victoria.

Two years later he was killed in an aircraft accident when he and his crew took off from the RAF Long Kesh, Co Antrim on a non-operational night flight to St Kilda via Barra Head to return to Portrush. Radio contact was lost at 2301 hours, at which point the aircraft, a Hudson T9352, had a position fixed at 56.16N 07.50W. No further contact was made. Subsequent searches found no trace of the plane, nor any sign of wreckage in the relevant area. Ronald Morton, the craft’s navigator, is the only member of the crew whose body has been found. Ronald was found dead on the beach at Rubha nan Both, Claigan by Dunvegan, Isle of Skye on the 4th December 1943.

Donald Gillies, in his Annals of Skye, provides a poignant description of Ronald Morton’s funeral service.

“1943 December 9th Portree, - Airman’s Funeral"

"The funeral took place on the above date to Strondhurinish Cemetery of Flight Sergeant Ronald Henry Robert Morton, aged 20 years, of the Royal Australian Air Forces. The service in the Church of Scotland was conducted by Revd. D MacKenzie and was attended by a section of the Royal Air Force stationed in Skye – a section of the Portree Air Training Corps from the Secondary School – representatives of the British Legion, local men from the Forces at present on leave and members of the general public."

"Wreaths from these various bodies were laid on the coffin which was draped with the Union Jack. The ceremony was simple and touching, and as the procession wended its way to the cemetery in the stillness and beauty of a perfect winter’s day many thoughts went out in sympathy to the far distant relatives of this young man, whose career was brought to an end at such an early age and so far from the land of his birth. At the grave, Rev MacKenzie made feeling reference to the sorrowing of far-off relatives to whom sympathy goes out in their sad bereavement."

Ronald Henry Robert Morton was the son of Frank and Etta Morton. He was raised on Cave Hill Road in Lilydale and attended the Lilydale State School before his family fell on hard times after the death of his father and he was sent to carry out his education at the Tally Ho Boys Home in Burwood.

Eventually going to live with his married sister in Balwyn, it was here when he enlisted to serve in the Royal Australian Air Force, which took him to England.

Flight Sgt Morton’s uncle Jack and his father Frank both serving in the Anglo-Boer War, as well as his father returning to serve in World War I. Another uncle, Thomas Morton, was killed in action during the First World War in 1916 in France.