Second son of Thomas and Evelyn Hollowell of Wolsley, SK, who also had five daughters, Bertha, Noel, Dorothy, Isabelle and Alice. Their first born son Robert Spencer Hollowell, also served with the R.C.A.F. Donald joined the RCAF in 1940, and among his documents is a letter written by Wolseley merchant Stan Cole, declaring Donald to be a popular student with all pupils in the school and who has taken a keen interest in sports. The school principal, Mr. Neely, called him "entirely trustworthy, quiet, sincere and unassuming." Donald enlisted to be a pilot and survived all of the obstacles that "washed out" many recruits. After preliminary training, he was evaluated as an "above average pilot," not an easy appraisal to attain.
From here he was assigned to the Royal Air Force base in Nassau, Bahamas and was flying Baltimore two-engined bombers, which meant he was likely going to do anti-submarine patrols. On March 18, 1943, however, the aircraft he was piloting was on a "circuits and bumps" training flight when an engine failed as he attempted to land. Although he tried to recover altitude, the aircraft crashed and burst into flames. Donald was burned on 80% of his body and died within six hours. Donald was buried in the Bahamas, but Spencer would never be found, his name being one of over 20,000 engraved on plaques at the Runnymede Memorial north of London, England.
But the saddest part of the story would come in a letter (again housed in the National Archives) the two men's father sent to a Miss Cameron, who seems to have been a young woman Donald met in the Bahamas. Thomas Hollowell was asking for a photo of Donald's grave, and then this sad sentence appears: "My dear wife died two days before Christmas. In the hospital (she) took a heart attack. She died with a broken heart over the loss of two sons."
Evelyn Hollowell was 49 years old. Thomas and Evelyn are buried in the Wolseley Cemetery. Nearby, a gravestone commemorates the sons who never came home.
(Source: Trolling Through History: The Sad Tale of the Hollowell Brothers by Stephen Scriver)
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Fallen