E.K. Dartnall RAF MIA

[AUS_RAAF]

A newspaper story airman mystery. This article contains a few fanciful and presumably incorrect details about the Dartnall brothers as both being Spitfire pilots with multiple victories.
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/167465543

I am guessing a little bit of fiction because George Herbert Dartnall (RAFVR.917066) was a Wireless Op with 9 Sqn RAF and killed 9th Nov 1941.

My question - does anyone know the full name, service number and any service details for E.K. Dartnall? Also whether he and his brother were born in Australia, their father was living in Australia but was probably English?

I can’t seem to find any reference to an RAF enlisted E.K. Dartnall through the usual sources London Gazette, CWGC, PoW lists so perhaps not RAF or incorrectly recorded with a different spelling of the surname?

Thanks in advance.

Regards, Drew

[Tom Semenza]

Drew,

There are no officers with that last name in The Air Force List, at least for that time period. Also there is no one in the AIR 78 lists of enlisted RAF personnel with the last name Dartnall and initials E.K. George Herbert Dartnall is there with the service number you found on the CWGC site.

Not much help I'm afraid, but certainly indicates the newspaper got it's info quite wrong.

Regards,
Tom

[dp_burke]

A few family trees on ancestry.com include a sibling named

Eric K Dartnall,

born 1922 in India.
Now, they also say that he died in India 29 Jul 1942 but there is no circumstances or sources mentioned!


The Familysearch site points to that 1942 Eric Dartnell being a different man, born in 1919.
So, a misnomer.

Name: John Arthur Eric Dartnell
Event Type: Christening
Event Date: 16 Feb 1919
Event Place: Madras, India
Event Place (Original): Madras, India
Gender: Male
Birth Date: 2 Feb 1919
Father's Name: Arthur Dartnell
Mother's Name: Agnes

[dp_burke]

After all that, there is an Eric K Dartnell born about 1921-22 in the UK Electoral registers up to 12 years ago, so, maybe he was only missing in July 1940.

[AUS_RAAF]

Thanks Tom and Dennis for your replies. The trove newspaper article gives just enough verifiable information to at least consider the existence of an E.K. I think you may be on the right track Dennis with the provided family leads indicating a possible alternate spelling of the surname. I have seen a few variations for Dartnall - from Dartnell to Dartnaill etc. The article only mentions E.K. was missing, so may have survived, evaded or became PoW. I will have to do a bit of searching and see whether Eric K Dartnell was in the RAF.

Regards, Drew