After initial training, Pilot Officer Baring-Gould was selected to become an instructor. His role was to train pilots, who would later go on to fight in the Battle of Britain, and other theatres of conflict around the world.

On the 7th February 1941, PIlot Officer Baring-Gould and his pupil took off from RAF Worcester, in a Tiger Moth light aircraft; on a duel instrument lesson. While flying on a course which followed the River Severn, Pilot Officer Baring-Gould retook control of the aircraft while close to the City. After a brief time, the plane lost power and struck a set of high tension cables, and went into a violent spin in mid-air. Within seconds the plane lost altitude, and began to cartwheel down the River Severn. After 500 metres, the plane finally came to a stop, when it crashed into the Diglis Weir, and began to sink.

  Diglis Weir on the Severn

at Worcester. The Cathedral can be seen in the distance and very faintly to the left and right are the pylons carrying the cable across the river as described above.         Courtesy of Worcester Museum

Pilot Officer Baring-Gould’s pupil was able to escape, but Benjamin remained stuck in the cockpit. As the remains of the aircraft began to sink deeper, the pupil and a local man tried in vain to save Benjamin, but to no avail. Some hours passed before the RAF was able to dispatch a recovery team to the area. When the salvage unit pulled the cockpit section from the river, the body of Benjamin Baring-Gould was discovered, still strapped into his seat. After an initial RAF enquiry, the cause of the crash was classed as mechanical failure. Pilot Officer Benjamin Baring-Gould was laid to rest in the military plot of Astwood Cemetery, Worcester, with full military honours in late February 1941.