Identity
Person No.
30110
Old ROH no.
2120
Service No.
P1/35454
Last Name
First Name
Gordon Derrick
Initials
G D
Date of Birth
Unknown
Est. Birth Year
Age at Death
25
Death Record
Date of Death
Cause code
KIA 14,780
Killed in action
Cause of Death
Killed in action, in North American F-51 Mustang #304. At 13H00 on the 15th February 1951, Lt Doveton and Lt McKellar took off from their airfield at K-10, Chinhae, to conduct an armed reconnaissance mission in the vicinity of Kaesong-Haeju-Sariwon. After attacking a few different targets, they found a camouflaged vehicle near Kaesong, which they attacked. On their fourth pass the vehicle caught fire. Despite this, Lt Doveton chose to make another attack, and Lt McKellar saw Lt Doveton's aircraft bounce off the side of a hill in a cloud of smoke, somersault, and burst into flames
Military Service
Branch
Air Force
Rank
Lieutenant
Regiment
Unit
Unknown
Secondary Unit
Army
Defence Force
UDF 24,808
Union Defence Force
Location
Country
Locality
Cemetery
Grave Reference
Memorial
Memorial
Location
Tanggok, Nam District, Busan, South Korea
Address
Coordinates
Panel
On the panel
Panel 13
Unit History
Part of
Notes
Husband of Helene Doveton. Born De Jongh. ref. 85 years of SAAF
Research notes
5 Sep 2026: Unit "2 Squadron" (a squadron, SAAF's regiment-equivalent) promoted to Regiment, per John's decision. Corps (South African Air Force) unchanged.
Citations
Unknown
External References
- South African War Graves Project open source ↗
-
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea
open source ↗
United Nations Memorial Cemetery in Korea (UNMCK), Busan — South African Korean War dead.
Stories 1
At 13H00 on the 15th February 1951, Lt Doveton and Lt McKellar took off from their airfield at K-10, Chinhae, to conduct an armed reconnaissance mission in the vicinity of Kaesong-Haeju-Sariwon. After attacking a few different targets, they found a camouflaged vehicle near Kaesong, which they attacked. On their fourth pass the vehicle caught fire. Despite this, Lt Doveton chose to make another attack, and Lt McKellar saw Lt Doveton's aircraft bounce off the side of a hill in a cloud of smoke, somersault, and burst into flames.
Dedications
No dedications have been added yet.